Never Gonna Be Alone
by wesman11
Summary: Post-OotP. Harry's rebel streak continues in this sixth year story. He finds out about his inheritance a year in advance and he starts his training on his own. And Harry finds himself falling for his best mate's sister, Ginny.
1. Lord Potter

A/N: This is my first dive into the famous Harry Potter fanfiction. And only my second story overall. I hope you all enjoy the first chapter. Not much action but that will come in the next few chapters before heading off to Hogwarts to start Harry's sixth year. Don't forget to review.

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters that are used in this story._

**Chapter 1: Lord Potter  
**

Harry Potter sat in the smallest bedroom in Number 4 Privet Drive brooding. He had been like this for the last two weeks since returning from Hogwarts. If one were to look at him, one would think that he was dead, only warm. He was pale, and getting frightening thin, though no more thin than was normal for the summer. He had bags under his eyes and barely moved from his bed, only getting up to use the loo or to get a bite to eat when he thought he could hold it down.

He had not heard from neither Ron or Hermione in the past two weeks, which was starting to anger him. Harry thought that his friends were trying to stay away from him, though he could hardly blame them for that. Everyone that got close to him seemed to die. His parents, Cedric, and then Sirius, who would be next. Mr. Weasley had nearly died from a venomous bite from Nagini while guarding the Department of Mysteries and Ginny had nearly died in his second year, and not to mention all the times that himself, Ron, and Hermione had nearly died in all of their adventures. So why would anyone want to get close to him.

He could hardly sleep, every time he closed his eyes, he saw Sirius falling through the veil with that smile on his face as if he was happy to be leaving the world. Or it would be the scene of the graveyard, where he would watch Cedric die, and then the resurrection of the Dark Lord, Voldemort. Then, if it was neither of those, it would be of the Chamber, where he would be too late to save Ginny, and see her dead body on the floor of the chamber floor.

He continued to lay on his bed throughout most of the afternoon until he heard a clicking sound coming from the window area. He sat up slowly, looking in the direction of the noise, to find Ron's owl, Pig, waiting for him. He walked over to the window and let the excitable owl in, which on doing so, the owl rocketed into the room and ran headlong into the closet door. Harry stood there for a moment before busting out a rusty chuckle, which soon turned into a flow blown laugh as his eyes twinkled with mirth for the first time since the events at the Ministry.

He walked over to where the dazed owl sat, and picked him up and walked over to the desk and, after removing the letter from Pig, sat it down on one side of the desk as he sat back down on the bed staring at the letter. The handwriting on the envelope was foreign to him, so he knew that it was not Ron, so that left only one person. Ginny. He had forgotten all about the fiery redhead that had snapped him out of his prat-like state back in December at St. Mungo's. He had always thought of her as "Ron's little sister", but since then, he had started to see her for herself and not just his best mate's sister. He had to admit that she was beautiful, more so than Cho even. He scowled at that thought, thinking how terrible things had gotten with the Ravenclaw seeker.

Setting those thoughts aside he returned to the letter, and finally ripping the seal of the envelope and pulling out the letter, and unrolled it to read it in length.

_Dear Harry,_

_Hi Harry. Hope everything is going well with those Muggle relatives of yours. I hope that they are treating you well, although you may be doing a number on yourself at the moment. And don't seem so surprised, because I know you better than you think I do. You think it is your fault that Sirius is dead, and that if you had not believed in the vision that he would still be here today. But I am here to tell you that it is not your fault, Harry! It is Voldemort's, and if you want the real person to blame, blame Bellatrix, not you. She is the one that sent him through the Veil, not you._

_And in case you don't believe me, I will give you some advise that helped me get over the events that occurred during my first year. It is that people much older and wiser have been tricked by Voldemort. You have to remember that Harry. He tricked you, how were you to know that the vision was a fake, after you saved Dad back before Christmas. And no one that I have talked to blames you for what happened, they are all just happy that you and the other five of us were not too badly injured. We are at war Harry, people who are close to us are going to die! There is nothing you can do about that. It may hurt now, but it will get easier after a while._

_Anyway, I hope that after you read this that you will finally stop blaming yourself and start treating your body well, and start sleeping because you have probably not slept for more than a few hours since getting back. And I overheard Dumbledore talking to Mum and Dad and he said that you should be able to come over a couple of weeks before your birthday. Well, I better finish this up, Mum's calling us for dinner. Write back soon, Harry._

_Love,_

_Ginny_

Harry sat in shock for a few minutes, unsure of how to divulge all the information in Ginny's letter. She is good, Harry thought to himself absently. Ginny did bring up a good point, that he was not the first person to be tricked by the Dark Lord. She would know all about Tom from her past with the diary. And he was more surprised by how correct she had been in her analysis of him. He was blaming himself for Sirius's death, but after reading her letter, found no reason to do so, and with that thought, he felt a giant weight lift from his shoulders. Then suddenly his emotional wall that he had built for the last few weeks toppled and he cried for his godfather, for being taken from him when Harry needed him most. He cried for his parents, for Cedric, for everything that had gone wrong in the past fifteen, nearly sixteen years of his life. Nearly an hour later, his tears finally stopped and for the first time in weeks, Harry Potter fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

He awoke around midday the next day and found himself getting extremely hungry, so with the thought of food on his mind he trekked down to the kitchen to find that the house was empty. On further inspection, it seemed that the Dursleys had left for the day, which meant that Harry could scrounge through the refrigerator without any regrets. After a rather hefty meal, Harry returned upstairs and picked up the letter from Ginny and sat down and read it quickly. After doing this, he got some parchment and a quill from a drawer and decided on writing back to her.

It took him nearly an hour to finish the letter, but once he was done, he rolled up the full roll of parchment and stuck it into an envelope and finished it by writing, _Ginny_, on the front of the envelope. The letter had started out as just a letter thanking her for helping him to pull out of his depression, but then he had ended up telling her more, talking about how it felt to see him go through the veil, and the events that took place in the Atrium. The attempted Unforgivable he had tried to use on Bellatrix and then the duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort, and then Voldemort possessing him for the first time. He had described the feeling as just wanting to die, he told her how he truly was hoping that the Headmaster would end the pain, but he had somehow remembered his friends at the opportune moment and shoved Voldemort from his body.

He also described how he had been basically starving himself and hardly getting any sleep at night. He knew he was probably going to get chewed out by her when he got to the Burrow, but he could not help the sad smile that appeared on his face when he thought of how fiery she could be at times.

Walking over to Hedwig's cage, he opened the door and held out his forearm for her to jump onto. "Hey Hedwig, would you mind taking this to Ginny," he said, and then added. "Make sure she is alone, so you may want to fly to her bedroom." Hedwig nipped his ear affectionately, confirming the request and held her leg out for Harry to attach his letter to. "Thanks girl." He walked over to the window and opened it and let her fly out into the sky.

After doing this, he went to the loo to shower and change clothes. He returned to his bedroom and shut the door. He laid down on his bed and thought of what to do for the rest of the summer. He decided that he would start to get up early and run in the morning around Privet Drive and the park that was located nearby. He also figured he could do some push-ups and sit-ups as well. It would help in his dueling abilities as well as dodging, and it would help to have some endurance for the battles and for Quidditch matches as well. He also decided that he would continue the D.A., he decided that even with a competent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, they could at least continue working on the Patronus charm that he had started teaching before the class got interrupted by Umbridge and the Inquisitorial Squad. He could also teach them a few things, like dodging, that would help protect them from the Unforgivables and other spells that could break through the _Protego_ shield. He also decided, that once at Hogwarts, he would use the Room of Requirement as his training room, which would allow him to work on his dodging as well as his casting speed and accuracy.

With all of this going through his mind for the next few hours he went downstairs to the kitchen and ate dinner in the silence of the living room and then returned to his room where he laid in bed and within a few minutes was out like a light.

* * *

Over the next couple of weeks, Harry got into the routine of waking up at 6:45am and jogging around Privet Drive. It was hard at first, but after the first few days, his speed increased, as well as his distance. He also did push-ups and sit-ups in his room. That too started off slowly, but he soon found his rhythm and was doing at least 150 before quitting.

He also received more owls from Ginny, where she would talk about the events around the Burrow and then she would ask questions about his childhood or about anything that seemed to come to her mind at times. Harry was a little weary at first to give the information to her, but instead decided to trust and he delved into his past, telling her about all the physical and emotional abuse, about how he spent nearly 11 years living in a cupboard underneath the stairs of the house, and the lack of food that he would always receive at meals.

One day, about two weeks before his birthday, he received an owl from Hogwarts. He knew that it would bear his O.W.L. results from the previous year, and to be honest, he had nearly forgotten about getting the letter that would see if he would continue his dream of being an Auror or not. With that thought, he opened the letter and pulled out his scores sheet.

_**Ordinary Wizarding Level Results**_

_Pass Grades / Fail Grades_

_Outstanding (O) / Poor (P)_

_Exceeds Expectations (E) / Dreadful (D)_

_Acceptable (A) / Troll (T)_

_Harry James Potter has received the following grades:_

_Astronomy A_

_Care of Magical Creatures O_

_Charms E_

_Defense Against the Dark Arts O*_

_Divination P  
_

_Herbology E_

_History of Magic D_

_Potions O_

_Transfiguration E_

_*: Top of the class in this subject_

Harry stared at the parchment in shock, he had received seven OWLs, three Outstanding grades, and one of those was in Potions! And the shock of being the top of his year in DADA was not really that much of a shock to him if he thought about it. After looking through the grades, he had to select the NEWT classes that he was going to take for next year. After thinking for a moment, he went with Care for Magical Creatures, DADA, Charms, Potions, Transfiguration, and Herbology.

As he sent the owl back to Hogwarts, he looked over his score sheet one last time thinking of the upcoming year, and just how hard it was going to be. He only hoped that the school year would go well, and that Voldemort would stay dormant for some time before he launched an attack against him or the school itself. With these thoughts, he set the parchment back into the envelope and placed the envelope into his trunk.

He continued to do his exercises in the morning and would spend most of his afternoon working on his summer schoolwork that needed to be completed in the courses that he was taking for the upcoming school year. This routine continued for the rest of his stay at Privet Drive. It wasn't until the day before he was going to be leaving for the Burrow, and just five days until his birthday, that something hampered this routine.

He had gotten up at 6am like normal for his run, and ran for nearly two hours before returning home to shower and to fix breakfast for his guardians. Once he had finished this, he returned to his room where he was about to continue his workouts when he saw an owl sitting on the windowsill. He walked over to it and gave it a few owl treats while removing the letter from its leg. The seal was one that took him by surprise. It was from Gringotts Wizarding Bank in London. He wondered what in the world the goblins wanted, so he decided to open the letter up and see.

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_It has come to our attention that Sirius Black died the night of the attack in the Department of Mysteries. We here at Gringotts are sorry for the loss of your godfather and hope that all is well currently. This letter is to address that Lord Black had refreshed his will once he was able to about a year ago. In the will in question, Lord Black named you as his one and only Heir to the Black Family. _

_As a result of this, you are the Head of the Black Family, and are seen in the eyes of Gringotts, regardless of age, as an adult, as well as the Ministry. In other terms, you have been emancipated, and now have access to your inheritance and the Potter's will. As the only known Potter left in Britain, you are also the Head of the Potter Family._

_We would like to meet with you in person to go over the assets held in both Black and Potter vaults. Please visit the bank as soon as possible in order to have enough time to go over everything that needs to be done._

_Thank you for your time, we await your meeting Lord Potter_

_Best Regards,_

_Griphook_

Harry read the letter over multiple times before he set the parchment on his desk. He ran his hands through his hair, making it stick up even more. He wondered how many more secrets his Headmaster held. First, he withheld the prophecy for some time, and now he just now finds out about his inheritance left by his parents. He wondered what all his parents had left him, and what Sirius's family's vault held. He would have to talk to Mr. Weasley to see if he could take him to Gringotts before returning to the Burrow tomorrow.

He wrote a note back to Griphook, saying that he would try to get there tomorrow if it were possible. And sent the bank's owl back on its way. The rest of the day flew by as he thought about tomorrow, and if he would be able to get closer to his parents and his godfather a little better. As he lay in bed that night, he just hoped that whatever happened, that he would be able to handle the emotions that the following day might throw at him.


	2. Returning to the Burrow

**Ch. 2: Returning to the Burrow**

Harry awoke at 5:45am the morning he was meant to leave the Burrow. He dressed in some old sweats and a tank-top shirt. By the time he walked out the door to begin his morning run, the clock in the hallway was chiming the first hour at 6am. He ran around the neighborhood one last time for the summer before he continued his training at the Burrow, where he hoped to have a little freedom whilst running and exercising. He ran to the park and back in about close to two hours. He came back to Number 4 and did the rest of his exercise routine which included push-ups, sit-ups and working on some attack blows (punching and kicking) on a bag full of old clothing that he had hung in the closet.

He finished his workout at 8:30am and went to shower and changed into his best clothing that he had that fit so that he might look somewhat good when heading to the Burrow that afternoon. Errol had come and delivered a message stating that Mr. Weasley would be there to pick him up around 1pm. As he exited the shower and started to change, he looked at himself in the full size mirror in front of him. The month of running and various exercises had filled his upper body with a good amount of muscle, though he was still a little skinny, though not as much as he usually would be during this time of the summer. His arms and legs were getting a fair amount of muscle as well, and he was noticing the difference in his workouts. He could not wait to get to Hogwarts and begin the second part of his training, which would be the most difficult thing. This would be the magical aspect of his personal training, where he would learn some new shield and defense spells as well as some good offensive spells that might help if he would reestablish the DA.

He went down the stairs to find the house empty, so he fixed himself a light breakfast and headed back upstairs in an attempt to finish the last of his homework, Potions. He was nearly done, but wanted to try and get it to be as good as he thought were possible. He spent the rest of his time working on the assignment, and by 12:30 had finished it and thus had finished all his homework for the summer and could now focus on his exercises and relaxing at the Burrow with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

Ginny had been a mystery to him this summer. With the letter that had pulled him out of his depression to every letter since. She had told him all about her summer so far and how her family was doing. He in turn written back to her, talking about all the hidden emotion he had been holding for so many years, and she would write back with advice and telling him that he was not at fault and kept referring to her experiences with the diary and how Tom had influenced her into doing those things, like he had used Harry into leading his godfather to his unforeseeable death.

And for himself, he started to see Ginny for Ginny, and not as Ron's little sister. He questioned himself, thinking, was he falling for her? He never was sure of what love truly meant, mainly because he never had anyone who loved him in a way different from a family member before. He knew the type of love that a mother gives to a son or daughter but not one gives to a member of the opposite sex that is not blood related to him. He spent most of his time when he was resting thinking about his feelings for her, and found that he was fiercely protective of her, as he had demonstrated by saving her life in the chamber back in his second year. And he always did find it cute when she would get flustered when he would be in the same room as her. He had also noted that she was maturing quite well now that she was starting to get older.

These thoughts kept running through his mind as he went down to the kitchen once again for another light meal, knowing that Mrs. Weasley would most likely have a buffet of food waiting for him at the Burrow. Once he polished off his sandwich and his glass of water, he walked back upstairs to make sure he had all of his possessions packed and ready to go. As he was putting his broomstick into his trunk and locking it shut, a loud crack filled the house. Acting on instinct, Harry pulled out his wand and waited as he crouched near the door. He heard footsteps coming up the stairway and after a few seconds the sounds stopped and a knock sounded on his door.

"Harry," it was Mr. Weasley, "it's Arthur, are you ready to go?" Harry about went to open the door but hesitated, he needed to be sure that it was Mr. Weasley.

"What did you warn me about before I left for Hogwarts for my third year?" he asked him loud enough for his voice to travel through to the door. He heard the man chuckle and cleared his throat softly.

"I warned you not to go after Sirius Black," he seemed to pause as if Harry was going to be enraged by someone saying his name. Harry on the other side of the door just rolled his eyes as Arthur continued his answer. "And what did you say in return, Harry?"

"'Why would I go looking for someone who wants me dead?'" Harry replied opening the door to see his father figure in the door way, a Dumbledore like twinkle in his eye.

"Hello, Harry," Arthur started to say, but stopped as he took in the figure of Harry Potter. He had grown at least three inches and had put on some muscle within the month of vacation so far. He shook his head slightly and cleared his throat. "All ready to go?" Receiving a nod, he walked over to the trunk and levitated it out of the room and down the stairs, while Harry sent Hedwig off, telling her to meet him at the Burrow.

As Harry followed the man downstairs, Harry remembered the letter that Gringotts had sent him the day before, and he needed to ask him about when they were planning on going to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies.

"Mr. Weasley?" Harry asked the older man, when Arthur turned to look at Harry, he continued, "I was wondering when we were going to Diagon Alley?"

Mr. Weasley seemed to think for a moment before he found the answer. "I seem to recall that your Hogwarts letters should arrive in a couple of days, most likely before your birthday, so we will probably go a day after the letters arrive. Why do you ask?"

Harry hesitated for a second. "Well, I received a letter from Gringotts stating that they would like to meet with me as soon as I could. I guess I will have to owl them back and let them know that I will be there in less than a week." Arthur seemed to be about to ask something, but held back and just took a piece of string out of his pocket and tied one end to one of the handles on the trunk and gripped the other end tightly. He held out his other arm near Harry.

"Grab hold to my arm tightly, Harry," seeing Harry's confused look, he chuckled. "I'm going to have to side-apparate you to the Burrow, now hold on tight." Harry did as he was told and felt a sickly sensation of being sucked through a vacuum for a brief moment before the feeling ended suddenly and he opened his eyes to reveal the home of the Weasley's, the Burrow.

Harry sighed, "Home at last." He said quietly, though not quietly enough, as Arthur heard him and squeezed his arm briefly and flashing him a smile before he levitated Harry's trunk to the door and opened it, allowing Harry to enter first.

As soon as Harry entered through the kitchen door, he was pulled into a bone-crushing hug by the matriarch of the Weasley family. "How are you Harry dear? Those muggles treat you well for the past month?" She continued to squeeze him tightly.

"Mrs. Weasley," Harry said, straining for breath, "I can't breathe."

"Oh my, I'm sorry dear." Mrs. Weasley said, finally releasing the hug, but held onto his shoulders to take a good look at him. "Goodness Harry, you aren't as peaky as usual. Did those muggles finally start feeding you better?"

Harry just grinned at her and walked through the house with Mr. Weasley who put his trunk in Bill's old room on the first floor, across from Ginny's room. Once he was settled he headed out of his room but decided to have some fun first. He walked back into his room and opened his trunk and grabbed his invisibility cloak that sat under his broomstick. He wrapped it around himself and walked up the stairs to Ron's room. He entered the room silently, finding Ron at his desk, seemingly working on homework, but on further inspection, he was reading one of the new editions of one of the many Quidditch magazines.

He slowly stuck his hand out of the cloak, making it visible and tapping Ron on the shoulder before quickly returning his hand to the safety of the cloak. Ron's reaction was priceless, as he screamed loudly, and in a high pitch that had every member of the Weasley family on the property to the top floor of the Burrow. Harry was trying extremely hard not to burst out laughing and was crying because of his held in mirth. The two parents entered the room with their wands drawn, as did the twins and Ginny as well. They all looked at Ron and finally Ginny asked what was on their minds.

"Did something happen Ron?" Ginny asked, looking somewhat concerned though her eyes said a different story as they showed that she too was holding in laughter.

"I felt someone touch my shoulder," Ron said quickly. "I was sitting up here when it felt like someone tapped me on my shoulder."

Harry could not resist and slowly and swiftly walked over to stand behind Ron, and tapped him firmly on the back, causing him to shriek in a high pitch tone before running out of the room. Harry could not hold in his laughter any longer as he let out a loud bark of laughter and fell to the ground laughing uncontrollable. As this happened the cloak had fallen from his body and he looked up to see the other three Weasley children in the same predicament as he was as the parents stood observing the four teens, their eyes twinkling with mirth as well.

It took about five minutes for the four to control themselves when they were finally able to get up off the ground, each still chuckling or giggling every few seconds. Fred and George walked over to Harry and helped him up before shaking one of his hands at the same time.

"That was great Harry," Fred said.

"Yeah, bloody brilliant if I do say so myself, dear brother," said George in reply.

"Thanks guys, nothing like returning with a nice prank," he said, before adding, "or two." He grinned wickedly as the twins actually got a frightful look on their faces before saying their farewells and heading back to their shop.

"Hi Harry," Ginny said quietly, as she blushed slightly, apparently noticing that they were alone in the room.

"Hi Ginny," Harry said in reply, but he walked over to her and drew her into a hug that would rival Mrs. Weasley's. "Thank you so much, Ginny," he whispered to her, before giving her one last squeeze and a small kiss on the cheek before exiting the room quietly.

He reentered his room and started to unpack a few things that he would need for the next month before returning to Hogwarts. He started to remove some of his books and placed them on his desk so that he could review if he had any free time and sense he did not have any more summer work to complete, he was fairly sure that he would have plenty of time for revisions. He also pulled out his broomstick and sat it on his bed, thinking of going for a ride once he had finished settling in. He rummaged through his trunk making sure he had everything he wanted out when he found two things sitting near the bottom of his trunk that he had nearly forgotten about. The first was the photo album that Hagrid had given him after his first year, and the mirror that Sirius had given him before his fifth year. He took both items out and held them loosely, he placed both items softly on his desk before he grabbed his broomstick and turned to leave the room. But someone stood just outside the doorway.

"Mighty funny prank you pulled up there earlier," it was Ron, he looked angry, but for some reason Harry knew it was not genuine. He smiled at his best mate and grabbed his broom off the bed and stared at Ron, a silent question in his eyes. Ron walked into the room and reached out to shake his hand and the two shared a one-arm hug and handshake, as the two exited the room and headed downstairs, where they told Mrs. Weasley that they were going out and flying on their brooms. Harry asked Ginny if she would join and she practically jumped out of her seat and flew out the door with the two boys, as they went and fetched their brooms. Harry decided to take off, and shot into the air like a bullet out of a loaded gun.

He fell into a rhythm as he flew quickly around the borders of the Burrow, he was not sure how high and how far the wards went and decided to stay low and near the house. After a few minutes of getting used to his broom he flew back over to the two siblings and began to help Ginny with her chaser skills and Ron with his keeping abilities.

The rest of the day flew by as Harry settled into life at the Burrow where he had always felt at home, where he felt safe and able to relax. Harry, Ron, and Ginny continued to practice Quidditch until Mrs. Weasley called them in for dinner where it was just the five of them as the twins were at their shop and the two oldest were off at their jobs, Bill still in Egypt and Charlie in Romania.

"Did Professor Dumbledore modify the wards at all around here? When we were flying I was not sure exactly how far or how high I was allowed to go." Harry asked somewhat hesitantly.

Mr. Weasley looked thoughtful before replying, "He came by a couple of weeks ago with Alastor and made a number of improvements and additions to the wards. So I imagine that as long as you did not go off the property that you could go as high as you would like," he stated. "Just don't fly too high now, you got that you three." Each of the children nodded in unison.

After dinner, Harry and Ron played a few games of wizard's chess while Ginny watched, while doing some charms homework that she had been working on for the last couple of days. After about three games, in which Harry lost, as was the usual, he stated that he was tired and headed to his room. He laid in his bed that night thinking of the year to come, and wondering what the year would bring. It seemed that all five of the previous years had been plagued by Voldemort in some form. He made a promise to himself that he would be ready for him when he next faced the man, no, the monster that took his parents and his godfather away from him. With that thought in mind, he fell into a deep sleep full of dreams of his parents and what could have been.

* * *

As the crack of the sun dawned on the town of Ottery St. Catchpole, Harry Potter stirred in his sleep as he awoke at just before 6am to continue his daily exercise routine. He rolled clumsily out of bed and put on his old sweats and tank-top shirt, stuck his wand in his sweats and headed down the stairs, being careful to avoid the squeaky step as he made his way out the door and stretched lightly before taking off in a swift run across the grounds of the Burrow. As he neared the edge of the Burrow, he suddenly stopped. He felt a large amount of energy coming from about 10 feet in front of him. He turned and looked back in the direction he had come from, and he could just barely make out the Burrow in the distance.

"Plenty of space," Harry muttered to himself as he looked at the, what he guessed was over a mile from the point he was standing to the back porch of the Burrow. He continued to follow the barrier that he felt as he continued to run at an accelerated pace. After his third lap, or about five miles or so, he burst into a full sprint that had him to the garden area in about five minutes flat. He looked at the wristwatch that had been charmed for some time to work in magical areas, showed that he had been running for a little over an hour. He checked inside the kitchen and found it still empty, so he settled on the ground and stretched out his legs, making sure they did not go stiff or get sore. He settled near the pond and continued to his workout for the next 30 minutes, and then checked to see if breakfast was being cooked yet. Sure enough, he saw that Mrs. Weasley had entered the kitchen and was being to cook breakfast, he glanced at the watch, it was now 7:50am. He figured he would have about another 30 minutes of workout time. So he settled into a free sparing mode, where he imagined opponents and started to strike out in, what would look like a complex dance sequence, but was really a martial arts routine he had picked up from one of Dudley's old belongings that had littered his room when he had returned for the summer.

Once he finished his free sparing, he stretched one last time before heading into the kitchen to see if breakfast was ready. He walked through the back door and started to set the table as he had entered while it seemed that Mrs. Weasley had gone upstairs to wake the others. After about five minutes, Mrs. Weasley came back down the stairs to find Harry sitting at the table, drinking some orange juice from a glass and seemed to be sweating somewhat profusely.

"Are you alright Harry, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked him worriedly.

"Huh," Harry asked confused, then he figured what had her all worked up. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just got in from exercising Mrs. Weasley. I didn't wake you did I."

"No, you didn't, you just weren't in your room or anywhere in the house." Mrs. Weasley replied as she transferred the food from the stove, to the table.

"Sorry, but ever since I got back from Hogwarts this summer, I've been trying to get into shape." Harry said as he started to place some food on his plate.

"Good for you, I just wish the others were a little more of a morning person like you dear," she said smiling at him, Harry chuckled softly, remembering all the times that Ron had nearly been late because of his deep sleeping habits.

Mr. Weasley entered the kitchen next and ate quickly before saying goodbye to his wife and Harry and heading off to work at the Ministry. Not long after that, Ron and Ginny made their way to the breakfast table and ate breakfast, all the while giving Harry strange looks. Harry looked at both of them in turn, before looking at Mrs. Weasley, who looked at him with a slight twinkle in her eye and a smile on her face as she started to clean the kitchen and shooed the three of them out of the kitchen. Each one of them took turns showering and getting changed into comfortable clothes for the day and headed back down the stairs to receive their chores for the day.

Mrs. Weasley told them to go on out and de-gnome the garden and then they would be free to do whatever they wanted until lunch. Harry led the trio out of the kitchen and into the garden where they found the garden littered with gnomes. Harry proceeded to start pulling the small creatures from their holes and chucking them a good distance out of the garden. He turned around as he felt eyes on his back and turned to see the siblings still staring at him.

"Can I help you two with something?" Harry asked mildly amused, and irritated. Though the amusement won out as both of them blushed and looked away at the same time and began chasing down gnomes as well.

About half an hour later, it was getting close to 10am and the sun was already beating down on the three teenagers. Without thinking about it, Harry removed his tank-top and placed on the bench that sat near the garden. When he turned back around, he saw that Ron was still working, but it was Ginny that surprised him. She was staring at him, gaping, at his bare chest. Ginny finally glanced up to look Harry in the eye, and when she made eye contact, he winked at her, causing her to blush and turn back around to continue work.

About another 30 minutes later, the trio finished de-gnoming the garden. Since they had about two hours of free time, they decided to go down to the pond to cool off. After returning outside from getting their swim suits, they headed to the pond. Almost immediately, the two siblings took off in a sprint to the pond while Harry calmly walked behind them. They were about half way to the water when he took off in a full sprint. He fell into stride quite easily and found himself quickly passing Ron before just barely passing Ginny before he ran onto the dock and jumped in and pulled his knees to his chest, splashing a good amount of water in a perfect cannonball.

Harry surfaced to see the Weasley's setting their things down, and Harry did not miss a beat, he silently swam to the edge of the dock and pulled Ginny and Ron into the pond as he grabbed one of each of their arms and pulled them into the water. Before they even hit, he was already moving as he quickly swam away as fast as he could and could not help but laugh as he heard both of them screaming at him.

They spent the rest of the morning out by the lake until Mrs. Weasley came out and got them inside for lunch. After lunch, Ginny and Ron went on back outside while Harry said that he was going up to his room for a moment and walked towards the stairs, while the other two exchanged looks, but went outside to practice Quidditch. Harry entered his room and shut the door and locked it. He walked towards the window that showed the backyard, where he saw Ron and Ginny, with brooms in hand, getting ready to practice. He closed the curtains of the window and went and sat on his bed.

He had been attempting to complete his Occlumency that he had been started last year with Snape. Harry had been able to accomplish clearing his mind and was now working on building a barrier around his memories so that Snape and Voldemort would not have such an easy time entering his mind. He had spent the last few nights doing this and was nearing completion on his defenses. It was nearly 3 hours later that he heard someone knock on the door that had thrown himself out of his own mind. He walked over to the door, unlocked it and opened the door. He was slightly surprised to see the worried face of Ginny on the other side of the door.

"Hey Harry," she said quietly as he walked back and sat on his bed, his back to the headboard. She walked and sat at the edge of the bed and looked at him. "You doing alright?"

"Yeah," Harry said, his brow furrowed, wondering what she was truly asking him.

"I was wondering if," she spoke hesitantly, "uh, after everyone's gone to bed, that you would like to talk about anything?"

"Uh, sure, that would be fine." Harry said, looking at her. "Let's meet on the dock at midnight, alright?" She nodded and got up, she got to the door when she turned back to face him.

"Thanks, Harry," Ginny said with a small smile, "and mom said dinner is almost ready." Without waiting for a reply she exited the room and headed down to the kitchen.

Dinner again that night was a quiet affair. The only big news that was announced came from Ron who said that Hermione would be coming over for the rest of the summer, tomorrow. Which meant that Ginny would be sharing with the older girl. Once dinner was finished, the two adults, as well as Ginny went up to the latter's room to get it set up for the extra person. While this was going on, Harry and Ron sent the time playing chess and talking about the Gryffindor's chances at the Quidditch Cup and whether or not Ron was going to try out for keeper now that Wood was gone.

Finally, around 10pm, everyone went to bed, ready for the arrival of the female part of the Golden Trio, as they were referred to by _The Daily Prophet_. When it got close to the allotted time for his meeting with Ginny, he threw on his exercise clothing and pulled his broom from his trunk, opened the window and flew out into the night. A few minutes later, he landed on the dock and sat the broom to the side, as he laid on the grass next to the dock and gazed out into the stars.

The area around the Burrow was quiet, and with no lights illuminating in the dark, the amount of stars that could be seen was highly increased. He gazed out at the stars and quickly found the dog constellation, Sirius. His eyes watered a little as he thought of his godfather. But instead of thinking of his death, he remembered all of the great times they had spent talking during the summer before his fifth year. And he surprised himself by laughing at some of those memories.

A couple of minutes later, he heard a twig snap and he sat up quickly and jumped to his feet, drawing his wand. He found Ginny in a similar stance, and he just beamed at her.

"Nice reactions," he praised her. "Though I'm sure glad we both didn't hex first and ask questions later." That comment was greeted with a giggle from Ginny.

"Well, you did teach us the best, Professor Potter," she teased him lightly, he just chuckled right back, not falling for her baiting.

A silence fell upon they sat on the ground apart by one a few inches. He turned to her and looked at her, what he saw nearly caused him to gasp out loud. Ginny was staring out at the pond, seemingly oblivious to Harry's staring. The light of the half moon shone down on her as if it were a halo around the head of an angel.

_How did I never see her before this, she is absolutely beautiful. _Harry thought, still looking at her. _Its just too bad that she's moved on. _As that thought ran through his mind, he dropped his head in shame, knowing that he had broken her heart, and it was like a stake driving through his heart to know that he had hurt her.

"So, how are you and Dean doing?" He said lightly, when she looked at him strangely. "I heard you telling Ron on the train that you were dating Dean now."

To his surprise, she started laughing, "Oh, no, I told Ron that just to make him a little angry. And I 'broke up' with Dean a couple of weeks ago." She said lightly. "It was great fun for sure."

He laughed a little in response, "Well, at least we know where you get it from."

"And what is that supposed to mean, Mr. Potter?" She threatened with a smile on her face.

Again, he did not allow her to bait him into saying anything he might regret. Instead he told himself not to risk her finding someone else to start dating. The smile on his face disappeared very quickly as he steeled himself for the following conversation.

"Ginny, I just want to say thank you for your letters," he said, staring out into the pond, he could feel her eyes on him. "I was in a bad state when I first returned to my uncle's house. I had no one to turn to, no one to talk to, no one to tell me it wasn't my fault," his voice kept getting quieter, until he reached his next line. "No one to tell me that they love me or to hold me when," he stopped as a strangled sob broke through his voice and he started crying, memories of his godfather, of the time at the graveyard, and of the Chamber flooded him.

Ginny was startled to see him open up to her like this, and not knowing what to do as he began crying, she crawled over to him and wrapped him in a hug, as he laid his head on her shoulder and wept. She rested her cheek on his head and silently cried for him as he cried on her shoulder. About 20 minutes later, she felt his breathing relax and released him from the hug but held onto his shoulders. She had not missed the last part of what he had said. Then it hit her. He was asking about her "relationship" with Dean because he was starting to have feelings for her, but thought that she had given up on him. She could not help but smile as he sniffed and wiped his glasses off on his shirt.

"You know," she said to him quietly, "I never really did give up on you." His head shot up quickly to look at her. "I just said that to Hermione to get her off my back and to try to convince myself that I had, but when I was going out with Micheal, there was always one problem." She looked into his eyes searchingly. "He wasn't you." She ducked her head down as she blushed lightly and was surprised when she felt his hand reach out and raise her chin so that he could look into her eyes.

Harry slowly leaned forward, his hand moved to caress her cheek and ever so slowly moved towards her. Ginny responded by closing her eyes and waiting, it seemed to take an eternity, but then it happened. She felt his warm lips on his and she kissed him back lightly at first, but as the kiss continued, she intensified it, happy that he met that intensity. After a couple of minutes, Harry pulled away, smiling whenever he heard Ginny whimper at the loss of contact.

"Ginny, I may not know a lot about what love feels," he said slowly, "but I think I love you."

She beamed at him, "Oh Harry, I love you too." With that, she pulled him back into a passionate kiss that left Harry dazed. They stayed in each other's arms for another hour or so before Harry felt Ginny start to slumber. He lightly woke her up and told her to get on his broom. He got on as she slid on behind him. They flew quietly threw his bedroom window and settled into the room. He walked her to the door, opened it, and stuck his head out of the door to find that no one was in sight.

"Alright, you should be good to go." She went to walk by him, but was stopped before she got out by his hand on her arm. He kissed her one last time and let her go. "Good night Ginny."

"Night, Harry." She said with a tired smile and exited the room.

Harry sat in bed for quite some time that night before sleep finally overtook him. He couldn't help but think that he had not been this happy since Sirius had been freed by him and Hermione. Harry only hoped that the happiness would be enough to help him when it came time to face off with Voldemort once again.

**A/N**: Well, there's the second chapter. I know, the H/G relationship sparked early, but I wanted to get it out of the way. This just seemed like a good place to put it. Next chapter: Hermione arrives, Hogwarts letters arrive, and Harry's meeting with Griphook. And thanks for everyone who read and reviewed the previous chapter. Hopefully Chapter 3 will be up as early as Sunday, mattering on how life goes. And once again, don't forget to review.


	3. Meeting at Gringotts

_**A/N: **This chapter has been updated. The reason it was posted uncompleted was because of fear that my power would be lost for some time, and thus it did, seeing as the first 80% of the chapter was put up Wednesday while the last 20% is up now. So I hope that you all will get around to read the last part of the chapter, and review on that part as well._

**Ch. 3: Meeting At Gringotts**

The next morning, Harry woke up a little later than usual, because of his late night talk with Ginny, and headed outside to begin exercising. As he ran around the Burrow once again, he began to think of the strange behavior of some of the Weasley's since he had come here three days ago.

Ron had been the biggest mystery so far. His best mate had not written him for the entire time he was at Privet Drive. He had thought at first that Ron was allowing him to grieve without being distracted, but after over a month, he had expected at least one letter. Hermione had been the same way, though her reason could easily be put to being out of the country until a couple of days ago. He knew that she would be on his case about grieving and handling the death of his godfather, but after nearly two months, he was ready to move on, and to, eventually, get revenge for Sirius's death.

The one person that he was hesitant to talk to was Remus Lupin. Now that Sirius was dead, Lupin was the last link to his parents and the Marauders. He always regarded the former professor as a father-figure, and now as his rightful guardian. Though he wondered when he would be seeing his, in his eyes, new godfather.

As he ended his run, he walked to the dock, where he would continue his exercises that that he had started nearly a month ago. It was around 9am when he finally returned to the kitchen door of the Burrow where he found the adult Weasley's eating breakfast alone, as it seemed that the two youngest were still asleep. Ginny and Ron finally came down the stairs a few minutes after Harry had returned from his exercising. The morning was spent with light conversation, as Mr. Weasley headed off to work and Mrs. Weasley gave the kids a few chores to do before Hermione was to arrive in the afternoon.

The three teens spent the morning picking vegetables from the garden, and de-gnoming it as well. They then returned to the house where they went upstairs to clean their rooms. Though, Ginny and Harry's rooms were already clean, so it was just Ron working on his own room. So this gave Harry and Ginny the time they were hoping to get together.

"When are we going to tell them about us?" Harry asked her, as she came into his room and sat on his bed.

"I'm not sure, maybe we can do it on your birthday." Ginny said with a smile. "It would be a great birthday present for sure."

Harry smiled back at her, "Well, that's fine with me then. I'm just worried about how Ron will take it. I'm sure your other brothers will be fine with us going out, at least I hope so."

"They better be!" Ginny nearly shouted. "Or there will be a sudden increase of bats in the area." She said angrily. Harry noticed that whenever she got angry, that she looked even more beautiful. Her flame red hair seemed to glow and move as if there was a slight wind going through the room.

He laughed lightly, "I'm sure glad that is not pointed at me. Though you do look more beautiful when you get angry."

The unexpected compliment caused her anger to fade as she blushed heavily and looked away from him. She felt his hand caress her cheek as he brought her face and he moved her head to face him. He looked at her and slowly moved in for a kiss. They held each other for a moment before separating, though Harry kept his hand on her cheek, his thumb lightly brushing her cheek.

"I might not of known last night," he said softly. "But now I do," he said even quieter as he raised his other hand to caress her other cheek. "I love you Ginny Weasley."

Ginny let out a small sob as tears started to leak down her face, where Harry quickly whipped them away. He pulled her into another kiss, though this one held more passion behind it. The kiss lasted for quite some time, and as they pulled back, they were both gasping for air. Ginny ran a hand through Harry's hair as she leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips one last time.

"I love you too, Harry." She said quietly, with tears in her eyes. "You've made one of my dreams come true." He smiled at her as she grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him out of his room and they went downstairs as it was about time for lunch.

The couple met Ron as they were exiting Harry's room. He looked like he was about to say something about what was going on, but he apparently saw the angry look in Ginny's eyes and let it drop. Ginny looked at Harry, as Ron continued down the stairs, and gave him a smile as Harry let out a breath he had not noticed he had in him at the time. Harry took Ginny's hand in his as they walked down the rest of the stairs and then dropped their hands to the side as they entered the kitchen where Ron had began eating while Mrs. Weasley was getting plates filled for them.

After eating lunch, they stayed in the living room, by the fireplace, in order to be around when Hermione showed up. While they waited, the trio played Exploding Snap and talked about the chances of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team for the upcoming year, as well as if Katie would be captain or not, because both Weasley children knew that Harry would get it if Katie was not willing to accept the job.

A couple of hours later, the fireplace glowed green suddenly and their bushy-haired friend stepped out of the fireplace, her trunk coming in behind her. She quickly brushed the ash off her clothing and ran over to where the others were sitting and greeted them.

"Harry!" Hermione said, as she ran over to Harry first and gave him a hug that rivaled Mrs. Weasley's. "How are you doing Harry?" She said somewhat quietly, in which earned a glare from Ginny and a look of expectation on Ron's face. Harry forced himself not to roll his eyes at her and decided to answer truthfully so she would hopefully get off his back.

"Honestly, I am doing better than ever now," Harry said back to Hermione, who frowned at him slightly.

"Are you sure you are alright? You just went through a bad psychological experience a couple of months ago." She replied as if the answers to his problems were written in a book that she could easily look up.

"Yes!" Harry shouted, causing the other three to jump, not causing his outburst. "I am doing just fine Hermione, and I would thank you if you would stop jumping down my throat about what happened to Sirius." He had worked on controlling his emotions through his Occlumency training, which was nearly complete, and controlled the burst of anger that came out of him as his voice lowered and he spoke in a icy calm voice. "And if you think the death of my godfather is just a psychological experience, then you truly have no idea what I have had to go through for most of my life." Without waiting for a reply, he left the living room and went out the kitchen door.

He went to his place at the dock and took his shoes off. He sat down at the edge of the dock and put his bare feet into the pond water. He closed his eyes and leaned back to lay on the dock, his feet still in the water, and began to go through his Occlumency training. As he fell into his meditation trance, he saw his defenses in his mind.

It was built like Hogwarts, the great castle that he had thought of as home since his first year. The castle was guarded by the statues and suits of armor, as well as the ghosts. Around the castle, and its grounds, Harry had placed a number of wards that he thought would work on keeping Snape and Dumbledore out of his mind. He only hoped that it would help keep Voldemort out of his mind. He had yet to feel a twinge of pain from his scar since he had gotten the castle built. Of course, this could have been because Voldemort, too, was working on his Occlumency to keep Harry out of his mind.

He had placed his memories in different rooms and locations on the grounds. He had a room for Ron, Hermione, Ginny, the twins, the rest of the Weasley family, the Order, the DA, Dumbledore, and the Dursley's. He placed some of his favorite, and most powerful memories, in a room and kept it separate from the others so that they would be easily accessible for a Dementor attack. The prophecy had its own room, that was tightly secured in the Headmaster's office. As well as Voldemort's past attempts to kill Harry, where he placed those in the room on the third floor that had Fluffy in it. Finally, he left one of his worst memories in the hardest place to get to. He had placed the memory of the Chamber into the actual Chamber in his mind. He continued in that trance for some time as he relaxed and allowed himself to return to the calmness he had achieved a few days ago.

Ginny was not a happy person, and when that was the case, someone usually got a Bat-Bogey Hex because of her bad attitude. It had started earlier in the summer when she had tried to send Harry a letter and using Pig, instead of Errol, not knowing if the older bird could handle the strenuous trip. She had gone to ask Ron if she could borrow the excitable owl to deliver a letter to Harry, he immediately said that she was not allowed to use his owl to send a letter to his best friend. He had told her that she should not bug him because he was probably brooding and mistreating himself because of Sirius's death and he did not need the extra worry.

Let's just say that that had been a bad day for Ron, as he was attacked by her infamous hex for a good two hours before her mother had found Ron in his room trying to get rid of the bat-shaped bogeys. She held onto the letter though, hoping for an opportune moment to snatch Pig from Ron's room. But it would be to no avail, as Ron would spend the majority of his time in his room writing to Hermione. She wondered if the older girl had owled Harry yet to check on him, but Ron never said, though Ginny suspected that Harry had not received a letter, nor send a letter for the whole summer.

He probably had thought that all of his friends were afraid of him. They most have thought that Sirius's death was his fault, and that he would be a danger to be around, because of his connection to Voldemort. And now with the prophecy that no one had heard, it just made things even more dangerous.

She continued fruitlessly to get her letter to Harry, when one day, Hedwig had shown up in her room before she had gone down to breakfast one morning. She hurriedly put the letter on the owl's leg and told the snowy white owl to fly back to her owner. She was not expecting a reply from Harry, but it did not matter to her. As long as he read it, it would be fine with her. She had been hesitant to put the closing "Love" as she usually did when writing a letter to one of her best friends or to family, but decided to leave it be.

It was about a day later that Hedwig returned once more, this time with a letter attached to its leg. She had taken the letter from her leg, fed her a few owl treats, and got a bowl of water for her to drink. The letter was quite a shock as Harry revealed a number of things to her in the letter. Saying that he had been starving himself and not sleeping properly.

She had tears in her eyes as he put his heart into the letter to the girl that he had barely ever talked to at school or at the Burrow. As she finished the letter, she wiped at her eyes and began to compose a letter back to him. This began there correspondence throughout the rest of the time that he spent with his aunt and uncle.

It had been an interesting few days since Harry had returned. Harry had revealed in one of his letters that he had not received any letters from Ron nor Hermione, only letters from her. When he arrived at the Burrow, three days ago, she could tell the difference from the Harry she had seen on the train over a month ago, and the Harry of now. He was more confident, and seemed to have grown some muscle as well as grew a couple of inches that helped match his more filled out figure. His hair was slightly longer than normal, leaving most of it to spill over into his neck and back area. Of course, her mother had fussed over him, telling him he needed to get it cut, but he would just chuckle softly and say that he liked it that way. He was beginning to remind her of her oldest brother, Bill.

Then, there was last night. Just the thought of kissing Harry made Ginny's knees give out a little. The memory of last night had been one for the ages, one to be used for future Patronus charms for sure. They had confessed so much to each other that night, while holding onto each other under the stars. And of course, there was this morning when he had told her that he loved her, Ginny, Ginny Weasley. Harry Potter loved her! It would have been crazy to think that a few years, or even months ago, but it was true.

Now came this afternoon, when Hermione had come over to spend the rest of the summer. Ginny could tell that Harry was not as excited to see her as he usually would have been. He seemed to be expecting her to get him to get all emotional and tell her what was going on since his godfather's death. So it was not very surprising to see him snap at her after her initial questioning. The thing that was surprising was how well that he had suppressed his anger at the older girl, and was able to calm down rather quickly then normal. As he stormed out of the room, she decided that he needed some time to vent, or whatever he needed to do right now.

"Would either of you like to explain why you did not write Harry while he was at his uncle's house?" She asked lightly as Ron and Hermione were talking about their summers so far.

"Why does it matter to you Ginny?" Ron asked, giving her a look that said he did not like the question.

"Well, he seems kind of upset that neither of you wrote to him, at least that is what he told me." Ginny replied, seeing Ron's face turn slightly red.

"It's none of your business what is going on with Harry, he's not your friend." Ron said loudly.

"He has barely spoken to you since he has known you, so what has made him turn to you now?" Hermione asked, trying to avoid a major sibling argument from erupting.

"Probably because he thinks that the two of you are afraid of him," she replied. "Would you mind explaining why he is so scary to you two?"

"Well, you know how he has that strange connection to You-Know-Who," Ron said quietly. "To know that he could take over Harry's body at any moment if he wanted to."

"And he has had a difficult time holding his temper in place," Hermione said, adding her part into the conversation. "He back-talked to Umbridge in nearly ever class, got suspended from Quidditch because he punched Malfoy and all the numerous times he has yelled at us."

"Well, maybe if you looked at his past you will know why he acts like he does sometimes," Ginny said getting angry at her new boyfriend's two best friends for the past five years. "Maybe you would know what it was like to live without any sort of positive physical contact for over a decade." With that, she walked out of the room and went to find Harry outside.

It did not take a long time to find the raven-haired teen who was currently laying down on the dock with his feet in the water. She had thought he was asleep, and thought it would be funny to play a prank on him. She snuck to the dock quietly and gently made her way over to him. Just as she was about to scream to wake him, he had opened his eyes, and had began to quickly stand up. He did just that and picked her up, swinging her around in circles, as she laughed loudly, yelling at him to put her down. He did just that, unluckily for Ginny, he had threw her into the pond. She came up spitting water from her mouth as she started to get angry, but could not as she looked to the dock to find Harry's eyes looking at her like she had never seen before. It could only be described as desire, he truly wanted her, but he did not act on it. Instead he stood on the dock with a wide grin on his face as he watched her swim to the dock.

As she climbed back onto the dock, she looked at her boyfriend, and said, "You are going to pay for that Potter."

"Really now, Weasley, is that true," Harry said in a mockingly indignant tone. "I would truly like to see you try to make me pay."

She ran straight at him, clearly not expecting this, Harry was taken down by his smaller girlfriend and then she proceeded to tickle him mercilessly. Though it did not last very long as Harry easily rolled her over and countered the attack. This continued for a few minutes until Ginny finally gave up to Harry's quick, seeker trained, hands, but he did not get off her. Instead, he lowered his head and captured her lips with his own. They stayed out on the dock for about an hour, until Mrs. Weasley called them for dinner.

As the couple were returning to the kitchen, Harry looked into the sky to see two owls making their way to the Burrow. He grinned as he realized that their Hogwarts letters would be arriving quite soon. They entered the kitchen, to find Ron, Hermione, and Mr. Weasley already seated at the table. Ginny took a spot next to Hermione, while Harry sat next to Ron.

Sure enough, right before Mrs. Weasley had finished dinner, the two owls that Harry had seen earlier had entered the kitchen of the Burrow where they allowed the four teens to remove their own Hogwarts letters. Mrs. Weasley quickly finished dinner and returned to her seat as the letters were opened. Both Ron and Hermione retained their Prefect badges, while Ginny's still held no badge. Harry was shocked to find that his envelope weighed more than usual, he opened it and went to take the letter out when something shiny fell out of the envelope and into his lap. No one seemed to notice as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley congratulated Ron and Hermione on their second Prefect badges.

He grabbed the badge from his lap and looked at it, sure enough, it was the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain badge. Everyone congratulated him as well as he placed the badge on the table and opened his letter to see his book list for the year. As he looked through the normal supplies, it was the one at the bottom that caught his eye. It read:

_Make sure to bring formal dress robes for a new Hogwarts tradition, that will start this year._

It sure did not go into much description of what the new tradition would be, or what it would entail to. If he were to guess, Harry thought it would have to be something like the Yule Ball that they had two years ago. But instead of like last time, he would have fun, and would ask Ginny as soon as the announcement of the tradition, if it were a ball, was made.

After dinner had been eaten, Mrs. Weasley said that they would be going to get their supplies in the morning so that they could get it out of the way and not have to worry about it between Harry's and Ginny's birthdays. The four teens went into the living room and spent the night playing games or reading or talking about the school year, though it was getting tense between the four of them. After a while, the adults went to bed, signaling that it was time for the four to go to bed as well.

They made their way up to their separate rooms, Harry walked Ginny up to her room, which she was sharing with Hermione. Hermione was already in the room, getting ready for bed, and Ron was already in his room. Harry and Ginny kissed briefly before saying good night and parting to their rooms.

Harry awoke the day before his birthday, as early as he had for the last few weeks. He changed into his exercise clothing and headed out the kitchen door to begin his running. For the last four days, that he had been at the Burrow, he had been increasing the length of his run, but found that he was still completing it only a seconds, or possible a minute or two longer than the previous day's distance had taken. Which caused him to believe that he had successfully increased his endurance and speed.

His other physical exercises had earned him a good deal of muscle mass and that had helped him to increase the power behind his kicks and punches that he was practicing with the punching bag that he had found in Mr. Weasley's shed. Though he was sure that he was in need of some new clothes, as some of the clothing he had bought to fit him had begun to fit quite tightly. He figured he would have to talk to Mr. Weasley about running into Muggle London before too long, or he would have to start borrowing some of Ron's shirts.

After he had finished his exercises down at the dock, he headed back up to the Burrow, where upon entering, he saw that Mrs. Weasley was nearly done with breakfast and that Mr. Weasley had apparently gone to wake up the children. Ginny and Hermione arrived first, followed by Ron and Mr. Weasley. To say Hermione was surprised when she saw Harry already up and at the table, munching on some bacon, would have been an understatement. While the other four occupants of the kitchen had grown used to the fact that the near-16 year old was always the first one awake, though only the adults knew what he was up to, the others were oblivious, even Ginny.

Breakfast passed by with relative ease, as the six occupants of the Burrow all ate their fill, with Ron eating twice as much as everyone else, of course. Harry fended off a multitude of questions from Hermione who had asked him what he was doing up so early. Though he parried them with ease and redirected the conversation to another member usually either Ron or Ginny. The questions Hermione asked ranged from what he was doing in the morning and why he was waking up so early.

Harry found all the questioning somewhat amusing as things seem to fall back into place. No worries at the current time, no Voldemort to worry about, though it did sit at the back of his mind, as well as everyone else's. Though he had not told either his best friends or Ginny about the prophecy, he had a feeling that all three of them would want to be there with him on his journey to defeat the Dark Lord, Voldemort. And for some reason, he was not scared or worried about them risking their lives in order to help them. Though he could not help but be very protective of the ones that he loved, especially Ginny.

After breakfast, Harry went upstairs to shower and to get ready to head off to the Alley. After he completed his shower, he headed down the stairs to find the others waiting on him. He smiled as they all turned towards him and they all smiled at him as one. Just before they left, Mr. Weasley said a guard would be waiting for them at the Leaky Cauldron. Though he did not say who the guard would attain to, he had a feeling one of the guards would be Tonks, and another might possibly be Professor Lupin.

One by one, they all Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron, and gathered towards the back of the bar and waited for the guard to show up. A few minutes later, three loud pops filled outside the back door of the bar, near the area between the Cauldron and the Alley. Mr. Weasley opened the door, wand drawn, and walked out of the bar to see three members of the Order of the Phoenix standing there.

The first member was Head of the Auror Department, Kingsley Shacklebolt, next to him, with her usual pink hair was Nymphadora Tonks, and next to him was Harry's last link to his parents, Remus Lupin. The three smiled at the group, as Kingsley turned around, pulled out his wand and tapped the necessary bricks to open the passage to Diagon Alley. As this was going on, Tonks and Lupin said their individual hellos to everyone. Lupin and Tonks reached Harry at the same time, as it was that they wanted to greet him last as everyone started to head into the alley.

"Wotcher, Harry!" Tonks said loudly as she grabbed Harry in a hug.

"Tonks!" Harry said breathlessly, "I can't breathe." He croaked out suddenly. Tonks quickly let go of Harry and pouted at him, and ruffled his hair as she stepped away from him. "Hey, Professor Lupin." He turned around and gave the former Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher a hug.

"Now what is it with the Professor stuff." Lupin said with an amused tone of voice. "I have not been your teacher for nearly three years. I think it would be alright if you call me Remus, or better yet, you can call me Moony." He said brightly with a smile on his face, though it did not quite reach his eyes.

"Alright...Moony," he frowned after saying the man's Marauder's name. "That is going to take some getting used to."

Moony laughed, "Yeah, I know that feeling, especially when Albus told me to start calling him by his first name, instead of Professor Dumbledore."

Harry began laughing as well. "Yeah, that would seem pretty weird to me too."

After some brief conversation, the three of them decided that they better catch up to the others and made their way into the alley. They caught up with the other six members of their party at Flourish and Blotts. While there, the four students bought their schoolbooks for the upcoming school year. While Harry, who was interested in some other things, picked up extra books on Defensive and Offensive Magic, Legilimency, Healing, and finally a book that he found on Animagi. He made sure that no one was watching him as he paid for the books and quickly put them away so no one would see the extra books. After leaving the book store, they headed to the Apothecary where Harry, Hermione, and Ginny all bought their potion supplies while Ron headed to the Eeylop's to pick up some owl treats for both Pigwidgeon and Hedwig.

They met up at Madam Malkin's Robes to pick up their usual Hogwarts robes and other needed clothing, such as socks and underwear. Though Harry, with the help of Tonks and Moony was able to go ahead and purchase his dress robes for the suspected dance that was to occur over the summer. The robe as Madam Malkin had helped him pick out was a very deep red, to match with the Gryffindor house. They were lined in black and were made of an interesting silk material that she did not care to explain. The robes fit him so well, even without being tailored, that Madam Malkin said that she would finish with the sizing and would be ready by the afternoon.

They left the store and headed back to the Cauldron where they met the others for lunch. They all had a nice size lunch and talked about some of the lighter things, and what the children were expecting during the upcoming school year.

After they had finished with lunch, they headed over to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes to see the twins. The group entered the shop to see that the store was populated with a number of kids and adults. The majority of the kids were running free throughout the shop, continually asking questions about one product or the next. The twins quickly spot Harry and waved him over quickly and took him into the back room.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Harry asked them.

"Well, our financial backer," George began.

"We just wanted to tell you that," Fred continued, as Harry sat back and waited for their diatribe to end.

"If there is anything you require for your pranking needs," George said.

"That all you need to do is ask us," Fred said, holding his hands up, keeping Harry from protesting anything.

"And we will give it to you for free!" George finished quickly, seeing that his twin was keeping Harry from arguing.

"Are you sure guys?" He questioned them after they had finished. The two both nodded together. "It wouldn't hurt business would it?"

"Of course not,"

"We're a hit,"

"Yeah, I could tell when we all walked in here." Harry said with a smile, happy to have help the twins reach their goal of owning their own shop, a joke shop, never the less.

They exited the back room to find that the others were searching through the shelves of the store, finding each new product they found, just as interesting as the next. Ron, Harry, and Ginny all bought some things, even though Hermione nagged them not too, they did it anyway. Of course they did while the adults were speaking to Kingsley and Remus. Though Tonks bought some things of her own, and when Harry asked who they were aimed for. She just gave him a small smile and looked over at Moony, who saw her looking, and smiled back. He noticed Harry looking at him oddly and also gave him a smile and a wink as well. Harry laughed under his breath as he thought of Tonks's attempts to prank the former Marauder.

Harry had talked to Remus earlier before they had entered Diagon Alley and told him about his appointment with Gringotts today. He told him that he had sent a letter last night to Gringotts saying that he was ready to meet with them after receiving the initial letter from Griphook a few weeks ago. Remus said that he would escort him to the bank as soon as they were finished and that he would get the rest of the others out of the way.

With this, the Weasley's all made their way towards Leaky Cauldron, while Remus, Tonks, and Harry stayed behind. Mrs. Weasley asked multiple times if they would be alright, in which they replied that they would take good care of Harry while they were at the bank. Harry turned to the other three teens who were looking at him with interesting looks.

"I promise I'll tell you all about it when we get back to the Burrow later," Harry promised them, before walking towards Gringotts with Remus and Tonks.

Once they entered the bank, Harry told Remus and Tonks that it may take awhile, since he was not completely sure of what the meeting would entail to. With this, Harry walked up to the next available Goblin and told him that he had a meeting with Griphook. The goblin clerk sneered at Harry but told him to follow him and led him down to a hallway full with offices. They finally stopped at one that had the name of Griphook marked across it, the clerk stopped at the door and knocked. After talking in Gobbledegook for a brief moment, Griphook opened the door and allowed Harry to enter, while the clerk walked back to his desk.

"Welcome, Mr. Potter," Griphook said as he walked back to his desk.

"I would like to thank you Griphook, for allowing me to impose on your time." Harry said with a full bow that seemed to take the goblin by surprise. But just as quickly schooled his features to hide his disbelief.

"You are indeed a strange wizard, Mr. Potter," Griphook said with a smile, that made Harry cringe inwardly, as the goblin's smile showed off its horrible looking teeth. "Friends to werewolves, centaurs, ex-criminals and now making friends with goblins."

"Well, I guess I'm not like the average wizard, and I never believed in any of that Pureblooded bigotry. I see nothing wrong with all the other races; house-elves, goblins, werewolves, centaurs, everyone, having the same rules applied to one another." Harry replied, his tone of voice making him sound like he was older than nearly 16 years old. Griphook replied by smiling brightly at him and he laughed loudly.

"If every wizard was like you, then everyone would have the same laws applied to them. But unfortunately, most of them believe in the Pureblood laws that have plagued our world for centuries," Griphook replied. "Hopefully, when Voldemort is defeated, you may run for Minister to help solve some of these problems."

The look on Harry's face when Griphook suggested that he should run for Minister left him with a shocked, but thoughtful look. As he thought about what life would be like without Tom Riddle, who had caused nearly three decades of terror, even though one of those was with him barely alive. He decided to respond as the two of them had sat in a somewhat contented silence as both of them thought of the world without Voldemort and every race living freely.

"That will have to be thought about at a later time. Voldemort needs to be defeated first, before I get any plans on running for Minister." Harry replied after a while.

"Yes, quite enough time to think about that." Griphook smiled, before pulling out multiple files from a file cabinet from behind his desk. "Now, Sirius Black's will was finally released a few weeks ago and it states that he has named you as his heir." Harry nodded, already knowing this fact from the letter he received from Griphook a month ago.

"This also leaves you without a magical guardian," Griphook said, and then suddenly a mischievous smile appeared on the goblin's face. "This means that you are to receive your full inheritance, which not only includes the Black Family Vault, but also, the Potter Family Vault."

"There's more," Harry said in a whispered voice. "But I thought they had left me all that they had left in my trust vault."

"No, Mr. Potter, your family was, is, one of the most wealthiest families in Britain." Harry's mouth dropped upon hearing that. He couldn't believe that no one had ever told him about this, his family was rich, of course the money made no difference, but it could come in handy one day, he thought to himself. "I believe from the look on your face, that this is the first time you have heard of this." Harry nodded, still in thought. "It would seem that Headmaster Dumbledore has been pulling a lot of strings to make sure that no one found out about it, especially you and Mr. Lupin."

"But, why, why would he do such a thing?" Harry asked in a whisper. He couldn't believe that Dumbledore had held even more information from him.

"Now, usually you would have to wait until your 17th birthday for your inheritance to become available to you, but seeing as you have no magical guardian left for you to go to, as per your parents' will, it is open to you whenever you would like it to be." Griphook said, "You will still be seen as under age by the Ministry, which I was wrong about in your letter, luckily, you decided not to take it seriously, or that you were rather scared of the possible consequences. So I must apologize to you, Mr. Potter."

Harry looked up at the goblin in shock, goblins were rather nasty to humans, at least that was what he had read about in History of Magic. "Harry, Griphook, you may call me Harry."

"But of course, truthfully, I should be calling you Lord Potter, seeing as though you are the head of an ancient family. But that is besides the point and titles, as very few believe, are pointless." Harry nodded his head in agreement with the goblin.

"Now, to make sure that you are truthfully Harry Potter, I need you to put some blood on this parchment, a couple of drops should be sufficient." At Harry's questioning look, Griphook replied, "The parchment is charmed to show the ancestry of the person's blood, helps to identify Polyjuiced persons."

Griphook set the parchment in front of Harry, and handed him a small needle, which Harry took and poked himself in the finger, allowing a few drops of his blood to fall in the middle of the parchment.

"Excellent," said Griphook as he took Harry's pricked finger and healed it for him, Harry nodded his thanks, then turned his eyes back to the parchment. "It should only take a few more seconds."

Harry and Griphook waited for a few seconds longer before ink started to appear on the parchment. After about another 20 seconds, the ink stopped and the parchment glowed golden for a few seconds before it was over. Griphook stood and walked to the other side of the desk, with Harry as Harry glanced at it first. He nearly fell out of his chair as he saw what the parchment said.

_**Name**: Harry James Potter_

_**Parents**: James Potter and Lily Evans_

_**Godparents**: Sirius Black and Alice Longbottom_

_**Head of**: Potter-Gryffindor Family, Black Family_

_**Vaults**: Potter Trust Vault (Vault 739), Potter Family Vault (Vault 42), Black Family Vault (Vault 711), Gryffindor Vault (Vault 7)_

_**Magical Abilities**: Wandless (limited, blocked), Elemental (blocked), Parseltongue (from separate soul), Magical Sense (limited, blocked), Natural Legilimens/Occlumens (blocked), Animagi (Animal(s) Unknown, Revelation Potion yet to be taken)_

_**Soul-mate**: ??? (blocked link, link merged on May 29, 1993)_

Both of the occupants had gone into shock upon seeing the last name of Gryffindor added to the Potter name. It would seem that he truly was related to his house's founder. His mind drifted back to something Dumbledore had said after Harry had rescued Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets. It had been something like "Only a true Gryffindor could pull that sword out of the hat," it all made sense to Harry now.

The other shocking thing was the last thing on the parchment. He had a soul-mate. The parchment said that the link had formed in 1993, his second year of Hogwarts. He thought about it for a moment before he shot to his feet, and felt his anger, that he had held for so long release a little as his magic seemed to flow around him and the office. Griphook looked up, when he heard a gasp from his left to see Harry in a fit of rage, his magic swirling around him, causing his body to glow a slight golden color.

"Calm down, Harry," Griphook insisted softly. "I know some of this is shocking to you but you must calm down so that we can make sense of it." He watched as Harry slowly allowed his magic to be absorbed back into his body and then visible relaxed and slumped into the chair he had been seated in earlier.

"I'm sorry Griphook, it's just that the Headmaster has hidden more than just what I had thought." Harry said as he looked down, embarrassed at nearly destroying Griphook's office.

"It is quite alright Harry," the goblin smiled slightly, and then said, "or should I say Lord Gryffindor."

Harry laughed slightly, "I think not Griphook, maybe when I want it known to people, but I believe that this should be our little secret."

"Of course, Harry." Griphook snapped his fingers and the parchment burst into flames, before quickly disintegrating. "Now, would you like to go and visit your vaults now."

"Yes, that would be excellent, Griphook," Harry said, as he looked at his watch, it was a little after 3pm, just over an hour since he had entered the bank. Though there was one other thing. "Griphook, do you have any idea how I can get some of those abilities unlocked?"

"Some just take enough power, others are blocked by people, most likely a powerful one at that." Griphook said, a slight frown on his face. "Though they would have to be truly one of the most powerful wizards ever known to be able to block something as strong as the magic of a soul-bond.

"Can it be broken? The block on the soul-bond?" Harry asked, hoping that it could be broken without getting anyone else involved.

"Yes, but it would take a large amount of power from one of you to block it." Griphook replied, "And as I know, a wizard's power generally increases a large amount when he starts to reach the age of seventeen."

"Yes, I have felt that," Harry said truthfully, "I did my first bit of wandless magic last summer when the Dementors attacked me and my cousin."

"Interesting," Griphook said with a smile, as they neared the carts. "It would seem that some of your abilities may come to you very soon indeed, possibly tomorrow, on your birthday."

"Yeah, I sure hope so, it would truly help me to defeat Voldemort," stated Harry, who was thinking of the prophecy and if he had just seen what the possible power could be. There was only one thing still bugging him about his skills. It had said that his ability to speak Parseltongue was not part of him, but a part of someone else. He made the connection to his interesting link that he had Voldemort shared and thought that possibly whenever Voldemort attempted to murder him on that Halloween night, that he had accidentally left a piece of his soul within Harry.

As they entered the Vault Area, Griphook called forth a cart and allowed Harry to enter first. Harry bowed to Griphook and walked into the cart, with Griphook right behind him. Griphook turned to Harry, a question in his eyes.

"Well, Mr. Potter, which of your vaults would you like to visit first?" Griphook asked, as he stepped into the cart.

"Might as well start off at Sirius's vault first, please," Harry said as Griphook stated the vault number and the cart took off shooting down the corridors on its way to Vault 711. It took about five minutes before the cart finally stopped in front of Sirius's vault and both of the cart's occupants walked out of the cart. Griphook walked up to the vault door and slid one finger down the middle of the door. Harry heard the sounds of metal hitting metal as the locks were released and the door to the vault opened.

The Black Family Vault seemed to be huge. Most of the vault was filled with gold and silver coins, while other sections of the vault held books on dark magic, and other forms of magic that have been frowned upon by the Ministry for centuries. Other areas of the vault contained a variety of weapons, that ranged from the medieval era to that of the first Muggle World War. He took a look around, not really touching anything, just in case it had been cursed or hexed to affect a person in any way, regardless of blood or of a new heir coming into the vault. The only thing that Harry picked up was a letter that he found sitting near the front of the vault and appeared to be in Sirius's handwriting. He opened it as he walked around the vault, interested to see what his godfather would have to say to him.

_Dear Harry,_

_If you are reading this, then I am sorry to say that I have passed on to the other side to be with your parents. Hopefully you are not blaming yourself for my death, because I know that it was not your fault, even if it was a prank gone wrong._

_Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you. Not just for believing that I did not betray your parents, but for allowing me to come into your life, getting to know you, not just as the Boy-Who-Lived, but as Harry James Potter, son of James and Lily. And I will tell you that I am very proud of you kiddo. _

_Just make sure you do one thing for me, since I no longer can. Make sure you kick Voldemort's arse all over Britain and then send him here, so we can beat him down some more. Oh, and can you make sure to run into Wormtail for me and your dad. I'm sure we would both be happy with the traitor dead and with his master in the pits of hell. Just remember to have fun in your life, Harry. Not everything has to be serious in life. So, have fun, and try to find a girlfriend. Knowing your luck, which will be like your father's, you will find someone beautiful with red hair. Remind you of anyone._

_Take care of yourself Harry, I love you_

_Sirius Orion Black_

Harry, who was silently crying, put the letter back into the envelope and put it in his pocket for safe keeping. After another few minutes, he walked back out of the vault and back to Griphook who was waiting patiently on him by the cart. He silently walked into the vault, tears still running down his face, he swiped them away with his forearm before looking down at Griphook.

"I would like to go to my family's vault now, Griphook," Harry said quietly, as he tried to get ahold of his emotions before the cart took off.

"As you wish, Harry," Griphook replied as he announced the Potter Family Vault number and the cart took off even further down into the caverns of Gringotts. About 20 minutes later, they appeared in front of the Potter Vault.

"Harry, all you need to do is place your hand on the door and announce your name loudly for it to open," Griphook said, as he allowed Harry to get off of the cart and walk over.

Harry did as Griphook said and the door swung open to reveal even more gold than he had seen in the previous vault. The first thing he noticed was a letter sitting on top of a trunk about the size that he had, but he knew that it was one with multiple compartments, he just wandered what all was in it. He picked up the letter and sat down in one of the armchairs that was near the trunk. He opened the letter with shaky fingers and finally unrolled the parchment to reveal a letter that contained two different people's handwriting.

_Dear Harry,_

_Son, if you are reading this, we are afraid that we are no longer alive. We suspected this would happen, so we wrote this letter to you right before we went into hiding with the hope that if anything happened to us that you would be able to live a nice long life without any danger._

_**Of course, that is probably not the case, unless you are truly to be able to defeat Voldemort at the age of one. Which of course is highly unlikely. We hope that you are able to fulfill the prophecy one day so that you may be able to live a nice long life.**_

_Also, when you get to Hogwarts, make sure to pull plenty of pranks on the Slytherins and whoever else deserves it._

_**Oh, James, be quiet, Harry, dear, don't listen to your father. Though I guess a good prank or two would not be too bad, as long as it does not hurt anyone. Hopefully, Sirius or Remus is able to take care of you now that we have passed. They may not be the most mature, but James and I trust them with our lives.**_

_Always know Harry, that no matter what happens in your life, that we are very proud of you and that we love you very much. Please try to stay as safe as you can, and let others help you when it comes around to dealing with Voldemort, pushing them away won't help anyone, only Voldemort. _

_**We love you Harry, as your father said, please be safe, and when you find someone that you love, chase them down no matter how many times they turn you down. That is why I love your father so much, he never gave up on me.**_

_**With love,**_

_**Lily** and James_

Harry cried yet again, this time loudly, his sobs seemed to echo throughout the large vault. It took a few minutes for him to gain his composure back, but once he did, he folded the letter back up and placed it in the envelope and put it in his pocket, along with Sirius's letter. Harry spent the next half hour walking throughout the vault, only stopping in an area filled with jewelry, where he picked out a stunning emerald gem bracelet that he would give Ginny for her birthday.

He walked out of the vault, while looking at his watch, it was a little after 5pm, and he really wanted to check out Gryffindor's vault before heading back to the Burrow. He told this to Griphook who smiled and called out "Vault Number 7" and soon they were screaming down the cart paths of Gringotts, past the magical waterfall, and past the dragons, finally ending when tracks were nearly out.

Griphook seemed to be ecstatic to be all the way down here. Harry smiled as he saw the goblin nearly sprint out of the cart before stopping a few feet in front of the vault of one of the famous founders of Hogwarts.

"This one is the same as the last one was to enter," Griphook said, "just put your hand on the lion's head and say your name when asked."

Harry walked up to the door, placing his hand on the lion's head that seemed to guard the vault door. Suddenly a loud voice filled the cavern, "Who dares try to enter the Vault of Gryffindor?"

"I, Harry James Potter, Heir to Gryffindor am asking entrance to this vault," Harry said in a loud voice. The response he got was that the door to the vault opened as the lion gave a loud roar.

Harry walked into the vault and was met with nothing but darkness. Harry, on instinct, pulled out his wand and got into a defensive crouch that he had read about in one of his defense books from last year. His wand was above his head as if ready to strike at any moment. The darkness lasted for another minute before a voice rang out through the vault. The weird thing was that Harry thought he had heard the voice before.

"Interesting, yes, a Hogwarts student I see. And very great reactions just like I always had. Very brave, compassionate, loving, all the qualities of a Gryffindor. And I can feel that you have been in touch with my sword as well. What ever for, my Heir?"

"It was to save my friend, my soul-mate, from the hands of the Heir of Slytherin. The Dark Lord, Voldemort, had possessed her through the means of a diary that held his 16 year old self and he took control of the Slytherin beast through her." Harry replied, trying to keep his anger down. "He eventually weakened her enough to get her inside the Chamber of Secrets and began to build himself on her soul. I caught up with him in the Chamber and killed the beast within the Chamber. With your sword and the help of the Sorting Hat to retrieve it, sir." Harry finished with his story.

Godric seemed to find it amusing, "Who would have figured that, my sword bringing down Salazar's pet. Shame. I wish I could have seen it," He seemed to have appeared in front of Harry as he was saying this, though Harry kept his wand trained on him just in case. "Now I am for certain that you are my Heir. Risking your own life to save the lives of others. My line is very famous for just that skill, and it would seem that you have it too."

Harry blushed slightly from the praise, "Thank you, sir."

"Quite alright," Godric said, amused of the slight panic on his Heir's face. "Now, that you have become my Heir, there are some things that you will need to know about the castle."

For the next few minutes, Godric described all of the secrets of Hogwarts school. He explained all about the history of the castle, how it came to be built, and how it came to be constructed into a school for wizards and witches. He also described that he would not need to give any passwords to any of the pictures or statues that will demand entrance to the rooms that they guard over. He also stated that he could command the ghosts as well as the suits of armor as well.

Finally, before Harry was about to leave, Godric walked up to Harry and held out his hand. Harry looked at the hand for a second before reaching out his own hand and shaking the founder's hand. Though something strange occurred whenever the handshake took place. Godric had pooled all of his magic into his hand and allowed it all to be transferred into Harry, doubling his magical core.

During this transfer of magic, Harry felt his whole body tingle, as both his body and Godric's body glowed a golden-reddish color that shone brightly throughout the cave. As the last of Godric's magic entered his body, he could feel his magic growing stronger, and the blocks on pieces of his magic started to be chipped away by the new magic.

"That should help get through some of the blocks on your magic. Of course, I would do it myself, but it would take an extremely large amount of time. But with the amount of magic you have now, and the increase you should receive tomorrow, on your birthday, so do not be surprised if you are able to do some new magic tomorrow." Godric said, smiling at Harry, as he suddenly vanished into thin air.

As Harry walked out of the vault, he heard Godric's voice once again, "Come back anytime Harry."

Harry walked over to the cart where Griphook was, yet again, waiting patiently for Harry to arrive. As soon as he saw Harry he perched himself on to the driver's area of the cart and they headed back for the surface. After another exhilarating ride on the cart, that took nearly half an hour to complete. Griphook and Harry exited the cart, and walked over to the lobby. Harry looked at his watch and noticed that it was after 7pm and getting close to 8pm. He hoped Remus or Tonks would be waiting for him.

Before they separated, Harry asked Griphook, "I was wondering if we could have another meeting in a couple of days, to go over all of my assets and other things. I would also like some more time to look though my vaults as well."

"That would be fine Harry, just send me an owl whenever you have time." Griphook replied as he reached out to shake Harry's hand. Harry shook it with no hesitation.

Harry stepped back and bowed to the goblin, who bowed back in response. "Thank you for fitting me into your schedule, Griphook, may your gold always flow, and have a wonderful evening."

Griphook smiled slightly and nodded his head slowly, "I shall be seeing you soon Mr. Potter." Harry gave a nod and the two parted ways.

"Everything settled now, Harry," said Remus, as Harry came striding over to see both Remus and Tonks sitting in their chairs, Tonks had her head on Remus's shoulder, as she had fallen asleep during the long wait.

"Yeah, sorry it took so long, we went down to visit my vaults after we got done with the paperwork." Harry said, with an inward grin, he could not wait to see Dumbledore again, cause he was ready to rip into the man for once again withholding information from him. And also from blocking not only his magic, but his newly found out bond with Ginny.

"No problem, cub," said Remus, as he shook Tonks awake. "Let's get you back to the Burrow, Molly is probably worried sick about us."

Tonks, who was now on full alert, got up and followed Remus and Harry out of the door as they headed towards the Leaky Cauldron and allowed Harry to floo to the Burrow before entering the fireplace and heading to the Burrow as well.

_**A/N: **_ _Alright, well, there is our first pieces of the vaults, one of the few upcoming chapters will have a better description of the Potter and Gryffindor Vaults when I get around to it. Chapter 4 should be up sometime next week, either Monday or Tuesday at the earliest. And with that, I shall bid you a good day, and hope everyone who was caught up in this week's snow storm is doing well, and is keeping warm._


	4. Happy Birthday Harry!

_**A/N:** Sorry for the long wait on this chapter. Life has been pretty busy, and being at school does not help much. Anyway, thank you all so who have put this as a favorite or alert and have been reviewing. Hope you enjoy this chapter and please don't forget to review._

**Ch. 4: Happy Birthday Harry!**

Harry awoke the next morning, the day of his 16th birthday, in a slightly agitated state. When he had returned to the Burrow last night, with Remus and Tonks, Mrs. Weasley seemed to be near panic state, as she grabbed Harry and nearly crushed his ribs in a hug. After escaping her clutches, the Weasley matriarch started arguing with the other two Order members, stating that they should have told her that they were going to be later than they thought. Harry had finished eating the leftovers from dinner that were sitting on the table for him and had retired up the stairs, to Bill's old room as all of the information he had learned from Gringotts started to filter through his mind.

Dumbledore had held a large amount of information from him, including the fact of his inheritance and that he was, in fact, the Heir of Gryffindor, not Slytherin, as everyone had thought back in his second year. Then, there was all of the magic that Dumbledore had seemingly blocked as they became known to him. The final thing though, was the worst. Dumbledore had held out the information on the soul-bond that Ginny and he had shared since he saved her from the Chamber. It was a hard fact to get through his mind that the man that he had always looked up to as a grandfather figure, and mentor, had turned out to be just as manipulating as Voldemort.

As this all ran through Harry's mind, he got dressed in his workout clothes and walked down the stairs and exited out the Burrow's kitchen door. He began a shortened version of his exercises as he wanted to make sure he did not run out of energy before the party that the Weasley's were having for him tonight. He also needed to talk to Ginny and see if they were going to make their relationship public to her family tonight or if they would wait until a later date.

As he ran, he could not help but feel a tingling sensation run through his body. The feeling had actually started before he had returned to the Burrow, and to be more specific, it had started when he had exited Gryffindor's vault last night. The only thing he could contribute to this tingle would be from receiving Godric's magic before he had left.

He had a strange feeling that the magic he had received was now merging with his current magic and thus causing his whole body to tingle slightly. He was not sure what would happen when the two cores finished merging, but he had another feeling that said the result would be very good. He continued to run around the make his laps around the Burrow as he thought of the magical blocks and his new magic. He stopped after his fourth lap, half of what he would have originally ran that day, if it had not been his birthday. He made his way to the docks, where he would finish his exercises and hope that Mrs. Weasley had started up on breakfast when he had finished.

He ran over to the docks and found himself doing his stretches and then went through his multiple exercises, which included, push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups, which he did on a low branch that was capable of holding his weight, and a good amount of martial arts moves. He was about halfway through the second part of his workout, when the tingling feeling that had been surging through his body since yesterday, stopped. He was in the middle of a set of kicks and punches when the feeling stopped. Harry stood there, unsure of what to do as he felt the magic thrash suddenly through his body. His body was lifted into the air by his magic, as a golden aura filled the air around him. Harry felt the magic surge once more, this time it was stronger, rougher, than the first initial burst of magic. By the time the third one was unleashed from his body, he fell into unconsciousness.

He awoke a few minutes later, the aura had faded, but the magical surges, seemed to be still happening. Harry attempted to regain control of his magic, but it seemed as it had a mind of its own. And thus, the waves of magic continued to flow out of him. He could feel his mind opening up to the world more, he could sense things better, as if he was able to feel the magic that was flowing out of him and the magic from the Burrow. Harry began to wonder if the magic that Godric had given him, were helping his own magical core to tear down the walls that had been placed inside Harry's core, allowing him to reach his full power.

Then, just as quickly as it had come, all was at peace once again. The powerful waves that had been flowing through his body for the last hour had stopped and had finally receded back into his new, stronger, magical core. Harry fell to his knees to catch his breath, as he was gasping for air to fill his lungs. Slowly he stood to his feet, grabbing onto the trunk of a nearby tree to keep his balance as he got slightly dizzy on his feet.

He felt strong, not just physically, as he had become over the summer by exercising. No, he felt that his magic was stronger, as if his magic's real power had just been unlocked. And it could be, Harry thought excitingly, as he began moving towards the Burrow. He would not say anything about the occurrence to anyone, not even Ginny, not yet at least. He still had a few things to do before he could tell anyone, especially Ginny. That is, if the block on the Soul-Bond that they had stayed blocked for a little while longer. That was one of the things on his mental list to check out, was that of the history of soul-bonds and how they worked. According to Griphook, they were extremely rare, and that his and Ginny's bond would be the first in many centuries.

He returned to the Burrow at around 8:45am, just in time to get some breakfast as Mrs. Weasley was just finishing her cooking and placing it on plates and sitting them on the table. He sat at the table and served himself as he listened to Mrs. Weasley yell at the others to come down for breakfast. He chuckled softly as he heard the loud thundering of footsteps echo down to the kitchen as the two youngest Weasley's ran into the room at near full-speed. Hermione entered a few seconds later, a smile on her face as she had seen the two siblings fly down the stairs at the news that breakfast was ready.

The three teens, said "Happy Birthday" to Harry and he smiled back at them. It was great to be spending his birthday at the Burrow with the Weasley's. He caught Ginny's eye, and she beamed at him as he shot her a quick wink while everyone was not watching. This was another reason that he had been able to get over the death of his Godfather more easily than he had expected. She always seemed to know what was wrong with him, almost like she knew him better than anyone. Of course, it would make sense to him, as he knew about the soul-bond, but no one else knew about, besides Griphook, who had promised not to tell anyone else about his abilities, or bonding, which he was grateful for.

The four teenagers ate breakfast quickly and then headed back upstairs to get dressed, as Harry entered the bathroom to shower after his workout. He met Ron, Hermione, and Ginny in the living room waiting on him, 20 minutes later. After discussing what to do for the morning before they had to retreat indoors so that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley could start setting up for the party they were holding to celebrate the raven-haired teen's birthday.

The teens decided to spend the rest of the morning playing chess and in Harry and Hermione's case, they each had ran back upstairs to grab something to read. Hermione had one of her Ancient Runes books, while Harry had brought down a Defense book that he had picked up from his Family Vault yesterday. It described certain spells that he had never read about before, much stronger defensive spells that were meant to be used in combat, or dueling.

When he had first arrived at the Burrow, Ron had been hard pressed to figure out why Harry was reading so much, or doing homework. Harry just said that he was going to start being serious when it came to his schoolwork with NEWTs coming up next year and he wanted to see where his true abilities laid. After thinking about it, Ron had always held him back from doing homework by keeping him busy with Quidditch, chess, or some other random thing, in order to not have to do their work.

He had been thinking about the school year more than he normally did. He knew that Dumbledore was still holding information from him, but he was not sure what the importance of the said information was. He allowed some of his anger at the Headmaster wash off after going down to visit his vaults yesterday with Griphook. The only thing that made him truly upset was the magical blocks, which he figured were destroyed by Godric's magic and the small magical boost that children get until they are of age. He would have some fun when it came for his first conversation with Dumbledore, it was sure to be quite the sight.

Over the course of the morning, more Weasley's arrived at the Burrow. First, it was Bill, who came with Fleur Delacour, who Harry had gotten to know during his fourth year during the Triwizard Tournament. After that, Fred and George arrived a little after noon, having worked only a half-day so that they could celebrate Harry's birthday at home. Charlie arrived later, as he had to get a Portkey from Romania and then come to the Burrow from the Ministry.

It was around 3pm, when other guests started to arrive, many of them belonging to the Order of the Phoenix or the D.A., or better known as Dumbledore's Army. There were not many DA members invited as Harry had wanted a small party, not the huge one that Mrs. Weasley was wanting to have. And it also brought down the chances of the Burrow being attacked while everyone was there. Of course, it would be nearly impossible for any Death Eaters to get to the Burrow. This was because of Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Flitwick's ward work that made the Burrow nearly as safe as Gringotts and Hogwarts. The only members of the DA that were invited were Neville, Luna, and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, which consisted of the three chasers, Alicia and Angelina (who had graduated last year) and Katie Bell (who would be in her last year) and Oliver Wood, who was in London now since he was on break from his spot as Reserve Keeper for Puddlemere. The Order was represented by Remus, Tonks, Kingsley, and Mad-Eye. With this amount of people already there, and the party not set to start until 7pm, it was now around 4pm, Harry thought it would be interesting to have a Quidditch game to start off the party. It was agreed and they set out to get their broomsticks and a crate of Quidditch balls.

The teams were captained by Harry and Oliver. Harry's team consisted of: Chasers: Ginny, Tonks, and Neville, Keeper: Ron, Beaters: Remus and Kingsley, and Harry took up the Seeker position. Oliver's team consisted of: Chasers: Alicia, Angelina, and Katie; Beaters: Fred and George; Seeker: Charlie; and Oliver played the role of Keeper. Hermione was going to play score-keeper while Mad-Eye and Bill officiated.

Oliver and Harry shook hands on the ground, while the others headed up into the sky. The rest of the people present, walked over to the paddock and watched the game, most of them with their wands out in case one of the players fell. After shaking hands, and some light banter, Harry flew high into the air, where Charlie was waiting, while Wood went to guard his team's goalposts.

Charlie flew up next to him just before the balls were released by Mad-Eye, "I've always wanted to see why you had been compared to me."

Harry looked at him, a smirk grew on his face, "Well, you are most certainly about to find out," Harry said as the Bludgers and Snitch took off into the air and the Quaffle tossed into the air to start the game. "Catch me if you can!" Harry screamed as his Firebolt shot him off like a cannonball.

"No fair!" Was the shouted reply, but Harry did not here him as he took off towards Wood's team's goals as he saw the action heading that way. A trail of red hair whipped as Ginny faked out the Profession Keeper for the first goal of the game, making it 10-0 in favor of Harry's team.

Ginny and the other two had no time to react as Katie had caught the falling Quaffle and shot towards Ron, trying to redeem her team and tie the game. After a few excellent passes that had Harry reminiscing about the past, Alicia took a shot at the goals, which Ron seemed to block with practiced ease. He tossed the ball to Tonks, who, for being quite clumsy on the ground, seemed to be excellent in the air. Neville, also seemed to be able to handle the speed of the game, seemed to have gotten out of his nervousness of flying, like he was back in his first year.

Twenty minutes later, the score was tied 30-30, both Ron and Wood were on their game today as they were letting very little in. Wood only letting in two amazing shots by Ginny that had bounced off the hoop and still went in. Ron on the other hand had been faked out on the three goals that he let in by Wood's chasers, who had been playing together for years. The beaters seemed to be taking it easy, not really attempting to take too much of a chance at seriously injuring one of the other players. While Harry and Charlie still did laps around the pitch, the Snitch being very evasive.

A few minutes later, Harry decided to see how good Charlie really was, and suddenly pulled into a dive. Charlie apparently seen this as he flew towards Harry and got right behind him. Harry had a grin on his face as he felt Charlie pull in close behind him. He took one hand off the handle and pretended to grab the Snitch, only to pretend to miss it and pulled out of the dive, close to 10 feet from the ground. Normally, Harry would have pulled up a little later, but did not want to risk the chance of hurting himself and Charlie. After a while, Harry drifted back up to his normal altitude for searching.

Charlie pulled up beside him a few seconds later, as they both took a few seconds to catch their breath and watch the action below them. "Damn, Harry! Where did you learn that?" Charlie demanded after a while.

"Six years of experience, and plus, my father was, as I have heard, a good enough Chaser to play professionally. Must be in my blood to be an excellent Quidditch player." Harry replied, thinking of his first flying lesson and how he had caught the Remembrall with very little difficulty.

"Well, keep playing like that, and I wouldn't be surprised if you were playing for England in a few years!" Charlie said, as Harry's face flushed red at the compliment.

"Yeah, well, we will just have to see won't we," Harry said as Charlie nodded in agreement, both thinking about the war that had yet to escalate, but both of them knew that it was going to be soon.

They eventually went off circling the pitch once again, looking for the Snitch that had not been seen by either Seeker for the entire time they had been playing. Currently, the score was 60-40, as Wood's team had apparently flustered Ron who had missed three straight shots, while Wood had saved the last five shots on goal.

Another twenty minutes passed by, the score now 90-80 in favor of Wood's team, as both Keepers were getting pounded by the flurry of shots taken by the Chasers. Harry, who was currently flying by Ron, saw Remus look up at him and signaled for him to call for a break. Harry flew over to where Bill was at and called a time-out. A minute later, both teams landed on the ground and the captains went to have a quick talk with their teams as water was made available to them and they got the opportunity to catch their breath.

"Alright team," Harry started, getting into his captain role, "good going out their so far." He looked at his team, trying to figure out what to say. He saw Ron was looking a little frustrated with himself. "Ron, don't get down, you are trying to keep against one of the best, if not the best chaser trio in Hogwarts history, and doing a fine job so far, and its not like we are playing for the cup, so keep your cool." Ron looked up at him and gave Harry a smile that quickly changed into a very determined face. "The rest of you are doing great as well, Wood's team could probably be a professional team if they wanted to be, and we are only a goal behind them.

"I'll try to catch the Snitch as fast as possible so that we can all eat, because I'm sure I am not the only one getting hungry." His team laughed, and nodded in their agreement, "Alright, hands in," Everyone's hands met in the middle, "give it your best out their, and be careful." With that, Harry's team flew back onto the pitch as Wood's team broke as well.

Harry's team came back from the time-out with a spark, as they took hold of the lead with three quick goals, making the score 110-90. Another ten minutes later, the score was 140-130, as the chasers started to fire with more aggression. Another ten minutes passed, when Harry saw the Snitch hovering towards Ron's goalposts. He was about half-way across the pitch when he saw it, and looked to find Charlie was somewhat closer. Thinking quickly, Harry sped off towards the Snitch as Charlie was apparently going in the other direction, not seeing the Snitch that had been so elusive until this point.

Harry suddenly heard the wind shift, and without having to turn around, knew that Charlie had spotted him and was gaining on him. Thinking of this, Harry let on a sudden burst of speed that shocked the former Gryffindor Seeker, and allowed Harry to increase his lead on Charlie. The Snitch seemed to notice that it had been seen and suddenly plunged towards the ground. Harry did not even think about it and went into a dive, chasing the Snitch down.

Harry gained on the Snitch quickly, as Charlie tried in vain to keep up with the Firebolt's speed. Harry's fingertips grazed the Snitch lightly as he reached out for the golden ball. He noticed suddenly that the ground was coming up fast, and with another quick burst of speed from his broom, reached his hand out again, this time, his hand snatched the Snitch from the air, and he pulled out of the dive quickly, his feet grazing the grass on the ground, allowing his team to take the victory, 290-130.

He flew up a little more, as his team met him and embraced as they slowly made their way to the ground. Once on the ground, Harry and Wood shook hands as well, as did the rest of the team. Finally, Harry shook Charlie's hand who just shook his head slightly and said, "I stand by what I said up in the air, but maybe not as long as we think." He said, clapping Harry on the shoulder and walking over towards Bill who looked like he needed some help getting the Bludgers into the crate again.

Harry looked at the small crowd that had assembled to watch the game, he spotted some more Order members that had shown up while the game was going on, and also recognized that some of the professors had shown up as well. His eyes fell up on Professors Flitwick, McGonagall, Hagrid, and Sprout. He finally spotted the Headmaster, who was talking to Remus and Tonks who had landed and headed over to speak with Dumbledore. Harry struggled to keep the anger he held at the headmaster inside him, as he thought over the things that he had learned while at Gringotts yesterday.

After watching the Headmaster for a few more seconds he walked over to where the other members of the DA were located at, talking about the game. As he came up to the group, Neville, Luna, and the rest greeted Harry and wished him a happy birthday. He spent time with his friends, talking about the lighter side of life: school, Quidditch, and other differing subjects. After awhile, all of the people who were invited to the party had arrived and dinner was served, buffet style, in the backyard of the Burrow.

Dinner was filled with stories and a lot of laughs, as the twins pranked a number of people, including all of their other siblings. The prank involved all of those involved had their hair turned black and messy, but the hair length stayed their normal length. Harry, who was sitting at the head of the table, was on the ground laughing at the twins' prank, and yet, everyone else laughed as when Harry got back in his chair, he found out that his hair had turned red, to resemble a Weasley. After that, the table was filled with loud chatter, the telling of stories from the past, and of the people who had been lost in the first war, as well as the second.

After everyone had finished dinner, Mrs. Weasley and Fleur ran inside and made their way out with a cake that was enormous. The cake itself was in homage to the Gryffindor House's mascot, a lion. The lion had apparently been charmed to roar at different intervals and was nearly the size of an actual lion. Harry thought, with some amusement, that it was the perfect cake to celebrate his birthday, seeing as he had just found out yesterday that he was the Heir of Gryffindor. As he thought of this, he remembered that he would be returning to Gringotts in a couple of days and would return to the Gryffindor Vault to take a better look at the contents of the vault. He also wanted to look at his family's vault in more detail, seeing as it had been rather emotional the last time. The letter he had found had been stored in his trunk, hidden within the blank parchment, that was known as the Marauder's Map.

After a horribly clashing version of "Happy Birthday" where the twins made the song last for a minute longer, the cake was served and the party continued in the fashion that it had during dinner. Harry was talking to the Weasley's about the upcoming school year, about what was to be expected with NEWTs fast approaching and Ginny in her OWL year. A few minutes later, Mrs. Weasley took what was left of the now demolished cake into the house to keep as leftovers and returned with a couple of others who had gone to help her bring out the presents that had been left indoors. Ron was the only one, besides Harry who seemed to be excited about the gifts as he suddenly screamed out "Presents!", which made everyone laugh quite loudly, while Harry chuckled at his friend's excitement.

Ron located his gift first and handed it to Harry, who opened it to find a Chudley Cannons t-shirt and poster. He smiled at Ron, and thanked him for the gift. His next gift was from Hermione, who had gotten him a couple of books, as was the norm from her. The first was a book on Seeker moves, while the other one was one about defense, that described a number of defensive hexes and curses as well as a number of counters to spells.

Other gifts that Harry received included: a box of pranking items from Fred and George, Neville gave him another book on defense that contained advanced spells, Luna got him a subscription to the Quibbler, which he happily took, he always did enjoy the hilarity of the articles. The Quidditch foursome had gotten him new Seeker gloves and pads that Harry received greatly, as his had been roughed up quite a bit. The Order, it seemed, pitched together for one gift and had gotten him a small foe-glass, that would alarm him if an enemy was nearby. Bill and Fleur got him a book on ancient curses, a book that Bill had found during his adventures in Egypt and thought that Harry might like it. Charlie had gotten him a dragon-scale jacket that had been made from the scales of a Hungarian Horntail. Harry took the coat and threw it on, and the crowd oohed and awed at how great Harry looked in it, but Harry saw one teenage girl who looked like she was going to pounce him at any moment.

Hagrid had gotten him a miniature replica of a hippogriff, that was charmed to move about when the person touched the model with their wand. Professors Flitwick, McGonagall, and Sprout gave him a good selection of books, ranging from Transfiguration and Charms, to a book on using plants in everyday life. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley got him a book on the Potter heritage, that brought tears to his eyes, as he looked down at the book that held information about the family that he had never gotten to know. He got up from his chair and hugged the two people that he saw as a mother and father figure, he noticed that most of the females had tears in their eyes as they watched Harry gain a bigger piece of his lost family. The next gift was from Remus, whose gift seemed to be another book from its shape, he opened it to find a journal of sorts. He looked up at Remus, who was giving Harry a sad smile and he gestured for him to open the journal.

Harry looked at the journal for a few seconds more before he opened it to the first page. What he saw inside caused him to get out of his chair and nearly crush the only link to his parents in a giant hug. The journal, as Harry would later read, belonged to Sirius, who used it to record his life at Hogwarts, filling the seemingly endless pages with things that happened during his life, his friends, the Marauders, and the different pranks they did, as well as other things as well. Finally, there was only one present left, he knew it was too big to be from Ginny, so it had to be from Dumbledore. Once he had calmed himself down, he pulled the gift in front of him and slowly started to unwrap it, unsure of what the Headmaster would give him. What he found was a shock, it was his very own Pensieve. A near exact replica of the one that he had been in twice before. He thanked the Professor for the rare gift and went on to thank the others.

He noticed suddenly that there seemed to be one gift missing. He looked over to Ginny, and caught her eyes, he gave her a questioning look, to which she replied by pinking a little and mouthing "Later" to him. He nodded his head in agreement and went on talking. Suddenly, the twins pulled out their wands and waved them a few times, and suddenly the long table that had been used for dinner was split into many tables sitting six and a dance floor that took up a little bit of area. Fred waved his wand once more, and the Wireless was turned on, and music filled the air around the party.

Slowly, couples made their way out onto the dance floor and began to dance. First was Mr. and Mrs. Weasley followed by Remus and Tonks, and many others. Harry was speaking to Kingsley and Mad-Eye about Voldemort, and if they had heard anything about his movements or what he was planning. Unfortunately, it seemed that Voldemort was laying low after the intense duel that had occurred between himself and Dumbledore.

Harry soon joined in on the dancing, first with Tonks who had pulled the birthday boy onto the floor quite suddenly and soon Harry found himself dancing with the metamorphmagus, who was enjoying embarrassing him. After that he danced with every female at the party. When Ginny came up towards him, he could not help but let his eyes roam her body. She was beautiful in the dress that she had put on after they had finished playing Quidditch earlier. The dress itself was emerald green, matching his eyes perfectly, and had her hair in a loose ponytail.

He pulled her in close as they entered the dance floor, all the others seemed to realize something was happening and allowed the two teenagers to have the floor to themselves. Harry and Ginny were unaware of this as they continued to stare into each others eyes, green melding with brown, as a slow song started to pour out into the air surrounding the Burrow.

_I'm here again_

_A thousand miles away from you_

_A broken mess, just scattered pieces of who I am_

_I tried so hard_

_Thought I could do this on my own_

_I've lost so much along the way_

Harry had heard this song once before, and it was somewhat fitting that he would hear it this summer. He had first heard this Muggle song while all of the Dursley's were gone for the weekend, last summer, and he was left alone. He had turned on the radio that was in Dudley's room and found a station where he enjoyed the music that was playing. This song came on a few minutes later and it had broken all of his emotional defenses.

_Then I'll see your face_

_I know I'm finally yours_

_I find everything I thought I lost before_

_You call my name_

_I come to you in pieces_

_So you can make me whole_

He had wondered who the person singing was talking to. When he had thought about it last summer, he had a feeling that the song had to do with God and going to Him with all of the problems that had been gathered throughout the years. But, as he thought about the song now, and looking at the beautiful young woman in his arms, he thought about her being his savior.

_I've come undone_

_But you make sense of who I am_

_Like puzzle pieces in your eye_

As the song went to do the chorus once more, Harry decided to open up to his savior, his angel. He allowed the music to flow through his body, and suddenly found himself singing along with the Wireless.

_Then I'll see your face_

_I know I'm finally yours_

_I find everything I thought I lost before_

_You call my name_

_I come to you in pieces_

_So you can make me whole_

Ginny felt tears prickling at her eyes as she heard her boyfriend pouring out her heart to her with this song. She had never heard this much emotion laced within Harry's voice, it was heartbreaking, as she looked into his face, seeing the tears that he had held back so often, trailing down his cheeks.

_I tried so hard, so hard_

_I tried so hard_

Harry held onto Ginny tightly, their foreheads touching, as they looked into each other's eyes. Both of them knowing that they were meant to be together. Neither of them noticed the light that had started to radiate around their body.

_Then I'll see your face_

_I know I'm finally yours_

_I find everything I thought I lost before_

_You call my name_

_I come to you in pieces_

_So you can make me whole_

_So you can make me whole_

Harry finished singing as the Wireless moved on to another song. There was pure silence, but that of the music pouring out. The party-goers stood in awe of the sight in front of them. Harry and Ginny were both surrounded in a bright golden aura that wrapped around their bodies like a glove.

Harry raised a hand up, and cupped Ginny's cheek. He brought his face down slowly and lightly placing a kiss on her lips. He pulled back and gave her a small smile, that she returned quickly, with a tight squeeze. As they started to break apart, Harry went to kiss her once more, but before he did, he stopped, just millimeters away from her lips.

"I love you, Ginevra Molly Weasley," Harry whispered as he brought his lips down onto her's.

Once they broke apart, Ginny whispered back to him, "I love you too, Harry James Potter."

And with that, something that had not happened in many centuries. A soul-bond was completed, and with the completion, came an explosion of light that swept over all those at the Burrow. And when the light finally dissipated, they found Harry and Ginny laying on the ground, unconscious.

_**A/N:** Yes, I know, cliffhangers are no fun. Anyway, the next chapter should be up by this coming Sunday if all goes well. The song from the chapter was "Pieces" by Red. I don't own the song, it belongs to the recording company. Enjoy yourselves, and I shall hopefully see you on Sunday._


	5. Never Gonna Be Alone

**Ch. 5: Never Gonna Be Alone**

Harry awoke slowly, he kept his eyes closed as he tried to understand why he had passed out. He remembered them telling each other that they love each other, and that hearing her say it made him feel complete. He finally allowed himself to open his eyes, only to quickly shut them as a bright light shone into his eyes. He opened them once again, this time more slowly, as he looked up into the bright sky, the sun was just reaching its apex, signifying that it was nearly noon.

He sat up with a groan as he felt the blood rush from his head as it circulated throughout the rest of his body. As the blood flow returned to his brain he raised a hand to remove his glasses, only to find that he did not have them on. He searched the ground below him, only to find that they were no where to be found. And to Harry's surprise, when he looked around in more detail, he found that he did not need them, he could see everything clearly, without a single blur.

He gingerly stood to his feet, swaying a little as the blood started to circulate normally once more. He looked around the grassy area, to find a large lake that seemed to be as big as the lake at Hogwarts. Seemingly following this train of thought, he turned around to see the castle that he had thought as his home for the past five years. Hogwarts stood in front of him in all of her glory. The stone seemed to be unharmed, not a nick or scratch on it. The windows were clean and the towers seemed to highlight the height of the castle to the heavens.

He realized with a start that this was not the actual Hogwarts, but the one that he had built in his mind over the summer, using the Occlumency skills that he had learned from his readings and from his experiences with Snape. He had spent quite a while laying in his bed at Privet Drive going through the thoughts of his life, and organizing them into the different areas of the castle and using defenses that he had only read about, but not used.

It had taken nearly three weeks to get through all of the memories and to sort them into the different classrooms and common rooms, but once he had done it, he had found that his emotions were easier to control. He also found that his scar hurt less than it had over the summer since Voldemort had attempted to possess him at the Ministry. He had put his link to Voldemort, that he had found near the back of his mind, deep inside the Forbidden Forest, hoping that all of the creatures that he had placed in the depths of the forest would be able to hold off the accomplished Legilimens.

He began to walk through the castle, starting with the dungeons. In this part of the castle, he left his memories of all his potions classes within Snape's classroom, and all his dealings with Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins in their common room. He left memories of his friends in the Gryffindor common room, placing certain friends into separate dorm rooms. Those who had their own rooms were: Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Sirius, Remus, the twins, and the rest of the Weasley's had a room of their own. He placed memories of Dumbledore inside of the Headmaster's Office, and memories of his teachers' in their classrooms, as he had done with Snape's.

He had placed all the memories of flying and playing Quidditch in the locker rooms by the Quidditch Pitch and memories of Hagrid and all of the creatures he had ran across in Hagrid's hut. Other memories were placed throughout the castle's numerous classrooms and other different areas. There was only a few set of memories that was set out in the open of the grounds of his Hogwarts. These memories came from his time at the Dursley's, the memories that had been some of the hardest to relive, as he sat and watched his younger self be abused and forced to be inside the cupboard for days on end with limited food and water, if any at all.

There was one other place that had memories out in the open, but they were still guarded heavily. These memories sat at the top of the Astronomy Tower and held memories that he would use to create his Stag Patronus. His tour of his mind stopped here, as when he looked out over the grounds of Hogwarts, and towards the village of Hogsmeade, he found that the village was not to be found. Only a mass meadow with a forest to one side and a seemingly small building in the distance. Of course, the building could be bigger, seeing as how he stood a good distance away from the building, or possibly a house.

Harry decided that he would check out the distant area and see if he could figure out what laid out there. He had a distinct feeling that he had seen it before, but from the distance he was away from it, he was not able to be sure about it. He made his way down the several flights of stairs inside the castle and finally reached the grounds a few seconds later. He had thought about taking his Firebolt that he had created in his mind, so that he could fix the castle easily after an assault from Voldemort and it had worked wonders after the Dark Lord had pierced through his defenses, before he had the forest up, and had attempted to send Harry into a larger depression than he had been. But he forced Tom out of his mind just as he did at the Ministry, using all the love he had for his friends, his family to push him out. He eventually decided to walk, figuring it would give him some time to get ready for whatever waited for him in the distance.

He walked up to the gates that stood strong, the first line of defense in his mind, he opened them, and quickly shut them, not knowing exactly how he could leave the area his mind created and still protect it, but he continued onward. He walked for what seemed like 15 minutes or so, Harry really was not able to tell, with no watch and the sun seemed content to stay at its zenith forever. Finally, he reached a small pond with a dock. He immediately knew what he was going to stumble upon next and he quickly hurried past the pond and through the small forest that laid between him and his other home.

He stood near the garden, where the Weasley siblings and himself had pulled gnomes from on numerous occasions. He looked up at the house in awe of seeing it inside his mind. Then he noticed a figure moving throughout the house. Harry's breath caught in his throat when he finally realized what was going on, the block on his and Ginny's bond had finally been broken by the amount of love the two had felt while dancing during his birthday party. He noticed that the figure, who he knew now to be Ginny, was in Ron's room, staring down at him, a look of shock on her face as she suddenly disappeared from view and ended up in front of him in less then a minute. Harry looked at her and smiled slightly before he wrapped her in a huge embrace and kissing her fully on the lips. He broke off shortly there after and looked at her, her face was still set in shock as she was trying to figure out what was going on.

Harry chuckled softly and finally said, "It looks as though I have a lot to explain."

* * *

Ginny awoke, just as Harry had, with a light shining into her eyes that caused her to shut them quickly. She too, as Harry had done, attempted to figure out where she was. While doing this, she thought back to the dance that her and Harry had shared. It was truly one of the best memories she had ever had in her life. He had poured his heart out to her when he sang along with the Wireless and it broke her heart, hearing the amount of emotion in his voice. Then he was kissing her, in front of everyone there. They had meant to keep it a secret a little longer, but she could not help herself and let him kiss her, and she was not afraid to return the favor. Though the next thing she knew, she saw black and ended up waking under the sun.

She finally got to her feet and looked up to see her house, the Burrow. She wondered how she had come to still be outside after all this time, and no one helping her or Harry back inside. Though when she looked around for Harry, he was nowhere to be found. She panicked, Ginny's head shot in every direction she could, hoping to see a glimpse of her boyfriend. It also seemed to be too quiet, as if there was no one around, which was hardly ever the case at the Burrow. She walked into the kitchen and noticed that the house too seemed empty. She felt her fear start to flare as she thought that Death Eaters had some how forced their way to the Burrow and had killed everyone. She just hoped that she would see someone, or wake up, and know that it was just a dream.

She walked into the living room to see the furniture and things as they were normally placed about the room. She walked up the staircase, and stepped on the stair that always squeaked whenever someone stood on it. She entered her room and sat on her bed, and started to figure out what was going on. Tears started to run down her cheeks as she began to think the worst. Her family could be dead, or captured, being tortured by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Then there was Harry, the person that she wanted to grow old with. Was he dead? Did Voldemort capture him? What was going on?! She thought angrily, stalking up to her window and looking out of it.

The sight that found her was one that seemed to stretch for miles. There was something out there in the distance that she had never seem from her window before, and she began to wonder what could possibly lie so close to the Burrow. She knew it did not belong to the Lovegood's, or the Diggory's. The thing that sat in the distance seemed massive, a castle of sorts. She laughed at the next thought that came to her mind. _That cannot be Hogwarts, that's all the way in Scotland! I must be going crazy._ Ginny thought dryly as she continued to climb to her youngest brother's room to get a better look.

She passed by multiple bedrooms that belonged to her brothers and opened them, making sure that there was no one else here. Sure enough, every door she opened led to an empty room, although they were all set up just as she remembered them being, so if someone had attacked they did not destroy the house. She eventually made her way to the highest room of the Burrow, the room in which Ron and Harry shared. The room was quite small, but both beds fit in there with ease. She sat on the camp bed that had been set up for him four years ago, and was still set up even though he was in Bill's old room.

She sat on the camp bed that Harry had occupied, the tears she had shed downstairs were nothing to the sobs that came to her throat as she thought that love of her life was gone forever. She thought through everything he had been through over the last five years. From losing Sirius just a couple of months ago, to seeing the death of his friend, Cedric, and seeing his parents' murderer reborn. Then there was the Stone in his first year, and him nearly dying, when he had saved her from Tom and the Basilisk. And no one was really sure what torture he had gone through while growing up with his Muggle relatives.

She cried for him, and for her family, and for all of those who had been lost in the fight against Voldemort. The tears eventually stopped and she walked up to the window that showed the backyard of the Burrow. This held the garden, the pond that was off near the forest, and her father's shed that held all sorts of different Muggle things that he collected during his job. She looked out at the large structure in the distance, still in disbelief that it was Hogwarts, or any type of castle and chalked it up to her mind playing tricks on her. Her eyes eventually turned down to the ground to look at the garden and the broom shed that stood nearby. But they stopped dead in their tracks when she spotted a raven-haired boy looking up at her with a radiant smile on his face.

Her breath caught in her throat and her eyes went wide at seeing him standing outside the Burrow. In fact, she flew down the stairs and before she knew it, she was standing in front of him. She was trying to say something, but her mouth just kept opening and closing without noise coming out. And before she knew what was happening, he had his arms around her and his lips were on hers. She had no time to react as he had already pulled back and was looking at her with a weird grin on his face.

He chuckled softly and finally said, "It looks as though I have a lot to explain."

* * *

"Harry?" Ginny finally said, after he had broken out of their embrace.

It seemed that he had noticed that she was crying, tears were falling down her eyes. "Hey," he said, raising both hands up to cradle her face and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "What's wrong, Gin?"

"I thought..." Ginny started, but broke down into tears again. "I thought...you...and my family...had died," she choked out the rest while sobbing as she launched herself into Harry's open arms, as he stroked her hair and whispered soothing words in her ear.

"I'm fine, Gin, and your family is fine as well," Harry said, raising her chin up so that she would be looking into his eyes. "And this is not a dream either. What I am about to tell you will seem slightly crazy at first, but it is entirely true."

"I trust you, Harry," Ginny said quietly.

He smiled brightly at her, "Well, from what I understand is that we are inside our minds at the moment," he placed a finger to her lips as she was about to interrupt. "It will be easier if you save the questions for later." He got a nod from her and he continued on.

"You see, when I saved you down in the Chamber," Ginny shuddered slightly at the memory, and Harry squeezed her a little tighter. "It created a bond between us. Though this is not like the usual life-bond, like the ones that I have with Wormtail and your father. No, this bond is something deeper than that. Somehow, the bond that was forged, was that of a Soul-Bond.

"Of course, I had no idea about any of this until I went to Gringotts when we were in Diagon Alley. It seems that our beloved Headmaster placed a rather powerful block on our bond, and on my magic as well, which I was able to destroy with the help of a distant relative." He smiled at her shocked, then suddenly angry expression. "Yeah, that's kind of how I felt as well. That is why I stalked off to my room so soon when we got back. It was just too much to handle. And at the party, I just wanted to go over to him and demand answers, but I knew that I couldn't let go of a secret that I had hidden from him when he had held so much from me."

She gasped slightly, almost as if picking up his train of thought. "He knew about the prophecy that we went to get that night at the Ministry?" It was a question, but was said as a fact.

Harry nodded solemnly, remembering how Sirius had died and then the aftermath in Dumbledore's office. "Yes, he did, and he allowed me to hear it whenever we returned from the Ministry, when the rest of you were down in the Hospital Wing."

"Will you tell me?" Came Ginny's soft request.

He looked down at her with tears in his eyes as he nodded slowly, "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives."

She didn't reply, only hugging him tighter. Harry had tears running down his face, and he could feel his shirt become wet with Ginny's tears as well. She finally looked up at him a few minutes later and reached up and placed a light kiss on his lips.

"You can do it Harry," she whispered softly to him. "I believe in you, love."

"But, can you love someone who murders another human?" Harry questioned.

"I really don't see Tom as a human any more, do you?"

"No, I guess not," Harry said, not looking at her.

"Harry," his gaze was still on the ground. "Look at me," he reluctantly looked into her eyes. "Do it for your parents, for all those who have lost someone in this war, do it so that we can have a future together."

As she talked, she noticed the doubt and fear in his eyes break away, and they filled with something she had never seen in his eyes before. It was his true power, his determination to fulfill his destiny and live on. She smiled at him, and was happy when he returned that smile and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Thank you," was his soft reply that he whispered into her ear. She only nodded in reply.

"Harry?" Ginny said a few minutes later, "What is that building in the distance?"

"Oh, that, well I still haven't finished everything I wanted to tell you, but it might help if I show it to you instead of telling you."

They headed towards Hogwarts, as Harry filled her in about what his thoughts were about why they were here. He had told her that the Burrow that she was in, was not the actual Burrow, but what her mind used to hold her memories in place from being seen from a Legilimens. He told her that she must have had blocks on her magic as well, as she had not learned Occlumency or had even heard of it, only from hearing about it from when Harry, Ron, and Hermione would talk about it in the Common Room.

He continued on to tell her what had happened after Sirius had fallen through the veil. How he had attempted to use an Unforgivable against Bellatrix and how he had failed at it. Of course, this caused Ginny to get a little upset with him, but she understood the reason for his attempted curse of his godfather's murderer. Though, before Harry continued on, she made him promise that he would not use the Unforgivables, unless it was absolutely necessary.

Harry finally finished through all that he wanted to tell her before they reached the entrance to his mind's defenses. But as they passed the lines of property of the Burrow, a gate appeared behind them, and the gate to Hogwarts would not open for Harry. He pulled Ginny behind him as he felt two presences enter their minds and was about to attack when he realized that the two people before him were not Dumbledore or Snape. Ginny stayed behind him, but once Harry had visibly relaxed, she stood beside him, taking his hand in hers.

The couple that stood in front of the two teens seemed to be a very elderly couple. It was then that Harry realized who they might be. He remembered Griphook saying that it had been many generations since the previous Soul-Bond had been completed. And if his theory was correct, then these two people standing before him and Ginny were the last two people to have a Soul-Bond.

"It seems that you have realized who we are, young Mr. Potter," the elderly man stated, causing both Harry and Ginny to jump slightly.

"Well, I can't say the both of you look familiar, but if I were to hazard a guess," Harry said somewhat shakily, and receiving a nod from the elder couple to continue, he did. "I would have to say that you two were the last ones to be bonded as me and Ginny are currently."

"Indeed Mr. Potter," the woman stated, "it seems that you are smarter than you have appeared in school the last five years."

Harry blushed at the compliment, though he did not argue it. "Thank you, ma'am."

Ginny finally spoke up, "I hate to be rude, but who exactly are you? Harry was told that the last bonding has not taken place for several centuries."

"Yes, I do feel that we should introduce ourselves to these two young people, wouldn't you say so, Nicolas," the woman said. Harry felt his jaw drop, he stared intently at the man named Nicolas.

"No way," Harry said in a whisper, making Ginny and the other couple look at him. "You two are the Flamel's, aren't you?"

Nicolas let out a loud laugh that was soon echoed by his wife, "Yes, my dear boy, we are. My name is Nicolas Flamel and standing next to me is my wife Perenelle."

"But, I thought the Stone had been destroyed after what had happened between myself and Quirrell," Harry said.

"Ah, yes, Albus and myself had a bit of an argument about what had happened, but in the end I persuaded him to not destroy it and we have been able to create more elixir with it for the past five years, thanks to you Mr. Potter."

"We are here, as you have both figured out by now," Perenelle got nods from both teenagers. "To assist you in learning more about the bond you both share with one another."

"Yes, it seems that the events that took place in the Chamber of Secrets of your second year, Mr. Potter, and your first year, Miss Weasley, seemed to forge this bond, shortly after you had exited the Chamber and were placed in the Hospital Wing.

"Though I regret to inform you that it was indeed Albus who placed not only the block on the bond, but also on both of your's magical abilities. Though it would seem that you, Mr. Potter, gained some help from a late ancestor, if I am not mistaken."

Harry flinched as he felt Ginny's eyes on him. It was the one thing he had not told her yet, "Yes, Godric was quite grateful that I was his Heir, especially after learning that I had disposed of Salazar's beast."

Harry heard, more than saw, Ginny's jaw drop, he heard the Flamel's chuckling and knew that he would have to explain a little more to her when they were done here. "So, you are the Heir of Gryffindor?"

"Yes, it made sense when I thought back to Dumbledore's words after we had gotten out of the Chamber. 'Only a true Gryffindor could pull that from the Hat.'"

"Indeed," Nicolas said. "It would seem that Albus may have let that slip, but none the less, we will have to have a talk with him soon about everything he has done to you two children."

"I quite agree with you, Nicolas. We shall speak to your Headmaster whenever we exit your minds. Now, I believe we have wondered off topic for long enough."

"Yes, quite," Nicolas replied to his wife. Both couples gathered around a table that had suddenly appeared and sat in the four chairs that had appeared with the table. "Thank you, Mr. Potter, I was just about to suggest something of the sort."

"You're welcome, sir." Harry replied blushing yet again, as he held the chair out to allow Ginny to sit. She gave him a smile of thanks and sat down in the offered chair. Harry sat down in the one next to her as the Flamel's sat across from them.

Over the next couple of hours, both Nicolas and Perenelle described the abilities that came with the bond. The most important, to the two of them, was the ability to speak to each other through each other's minds. This, mind-speak as they had come accustomed to calling it, reached over a great distance of ground and would only become void when one of the two were unconscious on sleeping. They described other abilities of the bond, such as the increase in power that the two of them had. Of course, Harry's magic was stronger than Ginny's due to Godric's boost that he had received the other day but Ginny's magic was not too far behind and they found out that they would have to find a way to control how much power they put behind certain spells.

There was also the ability to merge their minds into one, which would allow them to see through the other's eyes as well as hear what the other heard. Those were the basics of the bond, though they had told the younger couple that new abilities would arise as the bond matured, but they said that they would meet at a later period to talk about what the other abilities may become.

"There is also one last thing that you must be aware of before we leave you," Perenelle said after Harry and Ginny had asked several different questions about what they had problems understanding. "It is something that is very important."

"Yes," Nicolas said, continuing after gaining a nod of approval from his wife. "The fact is that this bond means that the two of you are now official married."

Both Harry and Ginny seemed to be in shock at the news. Though it was Harry who suddenly jumped to his feet, picking Ginny up in the process and kissing her fully on the lips. When he had placed her back on the ground, she had a shocked look on her face.

"You're alright with this?" She said, her jaw seemed to hang as he nodded slowly.

"Of course I am," Harry said with a wide smile on his face, as he reached a hand up to close Ginny's fallen jaw. "I finally have the family I always wanted. And it helps that I am married to the most beautiful girl, no young woman, on the face of the Earth." He laughed at her still shocked expression and pulled her in for yet another passion filled kiss.

Nicolas and Perenelle looked on happily. They had both expressed concern about telling them this until later, but agreed to the idea of telling them, using their own mind-speak ability. They watched as Harry and Ginny kissed passionately and waited for them to get under control. Though it seemed that they were not stopping soon, so Nicolas coughed slightly. The result caused the older couple to laugh as the two teens jumped away from each other quickly and blushed heavily. They both murmured an apology before returning to their seats.

"Now, I believe that you will be keeping the last part from everyone for a while, correct?" Harry and Ginny looked at each other and silently agreed that they would be waiting to tell anyone about the sudden marriage. "And I also think that we should keep the abilities of your bond a secret as well." Nicolas received nods in return.

"Well, it has been a pleasure meeting the both of you, Mr. and Mrs. Potter," said Perenelle, who laughed lightly as she saw Ginny's face grow red and Harry's face broke into one of the widest smiles she had ever seem on someone's face. "We shall see you two again sooner than you may think, good day children."

With that, both Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel disappeared from Harry and Ginny's minds. After they had vanished, the younger couple sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to fully comprehend all that they had just learned. After a few minutes, Harry and Ginny both agreed to continue on into Harry's mind where he was in the process of placing his memories of the bond in the most secure place he could find within the castle. He placed them in the Room of Requirement and moved the memories of the DA into the Gryffindor Common Room.

The two teens made their way over to the lake, and sat underneath an oak tree that was sitting near the shore of the lake. They discussed the different things that they had learned from the Flamel's and came to an agreement that they would wait to tell the news of their bond to the family after they settled some things first.

The rest of the time that they spent inside their minds, Harry told Ginny his deepest secrets. Which basically consisted of his time with the Dursley's. He had described every agonizing memory that he had of his relatives, how he had been placed inside the cupboard since he was three years old, or about the multiple times that his uncle had beaten him. And about how he had wished, on his eighth birthday, that he would die so that he could be with his parents. Both Harry and Ginny cried over his lost childhood, but it was Ginny who came to his rescue as his grief came over him and his sobs wracked through his body. She held him tightly as he let out all the emotions that he had been withholding for so long.

Then, it was Ginny's turn to delve into her secrets. She talked about how her brothers seemed to ignore her when she was first born. How no one ever played with her, how alone she had felt whenever they had all left for Hogwarts and she was left alone with her parents. She talked about her first year and all the horrors that Tom had shown her through the diary and how she had nightmares about them. She talked about how Bill had rescued her over the summer that they had spent in Egypt and how he had always been the one that played with her when she was longer.

After a while, both of them knew more about the other than their closest friends and family members. They were aware of every secret that the other had, no matter how small. They spent the rest of the time they spent near the lake just holding the other. After a while, Harry felt a tugging at the back of his mind and he somehow knew that it was time to awaken and see what the world would be talking about.

He told Ginny that it was about time to return, and she looked up at him, the fear evident in her eyes. "I'm scared Harry." She said in a whisper.

"You'll never gonna be alone again, Gin. I'll always be right next to you." Harry said as he bent down and kissed her softly. The pull got stronger and suddenly they were both floating into nothingness once again.

* * *

Harry felt himself come into consciousness and he opened his eyes, expecting bright lighting as he had inside his mind. But his worries were unfounded as it appeared to be night outside. He sat up slowly and took in his surroundings and bit back a groan as he noticed that he was at Hogwarts, inside the Hospital Wing.

_One would think I deserved my own personal bed by now_, Harry thought sarcastically.

_That isn't a bad idea Mr. Potter_, came an equally sarcastic voice that sounded like...

_Ginny? Is that you?_

_Of course it is, silly. Who else has the ability to talk to you in your head?_

_Of course, I just wasn't expecting to be able to mind-speak so soon. I figured that it might take some time to develop._

_Yeah, there is that. Oh well._

_Where are you? Are you some where in the Hospital Wing as well._

_Why I am laying right next to you Mr. Potter. Why do you ask?_

_Well, I was just worried about you is all, Mrs. Potter. _He teased her with her last name and was rewarded as her reply took a little longer than normal.

_I think I like the sound of that._

_Well, one would, especially after dreaming about it for so long._

_I knew I shouldn't have told you._

_Well, I could always tell the twins, they could tease you for me._

_Is that a threat Harry?_

_Nope, its a promise, love._

There first mind-speak conversation was cut off by the nurse's office door opening and Madam Pomfrey stepped out and walked over to where Harry and Ginny were lying in bed.

"Well, it seems that the two of you are finally awake. Do you two need anything before I go and get the Headmaster and to call your parents, Miss Weasley."

"Actually, how long have we been here if I may ask?" Harry asked the matron.

"Let's see, you've been here since your birthday, Mr. Potter, and it is the fourth of August as of right now, so that would be about four days."

"Then I think I could go for some solid food, what about you Harry?" Ginny said.

"Yeah, I think I'd have to agree with you there Ginny, I am somewhat hungry."

"Alright, I'll have a house-elf drop by with a meal for both of you shortly. Now if you don't mind, I will go and call the Headmaster down, I believe he had a few questions."

_Yeah, and I have some questions I'd like to ask him myself. _Ginny stated in her mind, as her ears flushed. She heard Harry laugh in her mind as she started picturing her hexing the famous Albus Dumbledore with her patented Bat-Bogey Hex. The laughing increased and Harry actually had tears in his eyes as he thought of other hexes being used on their "beloved" Headmaster.

A few minutes later, two house-elves appeared in front of their beds, with trays of food in their hands. The two house-elves happened to be Dobby and Winky, who both were happy to see that Harry and Ginny were awake and were in the prospect of their praises of Harry when Dobby suddenly stopped and looked at the two teens with wide eyes, Winky stopped a few seconds later as well and looked at them just as Dobby was.

"Uh, Dobby, Winky, is something wrong?" Harry asked the question that Ginny was wanting to ask as well.

"Harry Potter sir, he has been bonded to Miss Wheezy," said Dobby in a voice that was full of awe.

Both Harry and Ginny froze suddenly. "How did you guys know about that? No one could no about it yet, we just found out about it." Ginny was freaking out. She looked over at Harry who was surprisingly calm.

"You guys aren't going to tell Headmaster Dumbledore are you?"

"No, Harry Potter sir, we are not allowed to speak of such things, unless those involved allow us to." came Winky's reply.

"Alright, thank you Winky, and I'm sure the same goes for you, Dobby?" Harry received a nod in return. "Thank you both, we'll make sure to visit you guys whenever we come back to Hogwarts."

"And thanks for the food, you two," Ginny added as the two elves bowed and left with a simultaneous 'pop'.

They ate in silence as they both ate the food the elves brought at a speed that would have made Ron proud. After a little while, Ginny got out of bed and joined Harry in his bed and snuggled up against him. Harry placed an arm around her back and held her close as she placed her head against his chest, allowing her to hear his heartbeat.

There was no need for either of them to talk aloud or inside their minds. They just needed to be together, holding one another, just knowing that the other is safe was enough for them. They had done enough talking during the four days that they had spent in each other's mind that they knew everything about the other. They knew the other's life inside and out. And they also knew how much the other meant to them, how much they loved each other. And right now, just before the two drifted off to sleep, Harry could not help but wonder if he would see his reflection showing back at him if he were to run into the Mirror of Erised once more.

_**A/N: **Alright, another chapter down in the books. Hopefully I described everything clearly, but if not, it will all be described once more in a future chapter. The next chapter will be the aftermath of the bond and the celebration of Ginny's fifthteenth birthday. See you all next week. And don't forget to review._


	6. A Not So Sweet 15th

_**A/N: **I am so, so, so sorry that it took over 3 months to update. But life has a way of screwing with my free time. School has been over for over a week now but work is getting kind of hectic with Memorial Day approaching. Hopefully it will not take another 3 months for the next chapter, and I will make sure of it. Thanks for all those who have reviewed during my short hiatus of sorts and I hope that you will all enjoy this chapter. Please don't forget to review._

**Ch. 6: A Not So Sweet 15th**

Harry walked into the Dumbledore's office after being woken up by Madam Pomfrey had gotten them up after their short nap, he and Ginny had taken after they had finished eating. She did not look happy at the fact that Ginny was out of her bed and in Harry's, but see did not say anything and just smiled softly as she told Harry that the Headmaster was waiting for him in his office.

As he walked through the empty halls of the castle, he began to think of the upcoming meeting with the Headmaster. He was not very happy at the man right now, and from his clenched fists, he knew it would be difficult to control his anger once again. He had already placed an extra barrier alongside the gates of his mind's castle to make sure that none of the meeting went to Ginny, who was still currently sleeping in the infirmary.

He walked up to the gargoyle that stood guard in front of the entrance to Dumbledore's office and gave the password. The gargoyle sprang to life and jumped to the side and the escalator type staircase wrapped itself up towards the door. He took his time walking up each step and once he reached the last stair, he rapped the door quickly and waited for the usual call of the Headmaster. Receiving the normal "Enter.", he opened the door and walked into the room. As he crossed over the threshold of the door, and closed it behind him, he noticed that the room had not changed from the last time he had been in it over a month ago when he had learned about the prophecy and his reaction had caused him to destroy multiple objects that sat on one of the desks that were around the room.

As he made his way to the armchair that sat in front of Dumbledore, he began to ponder why exactly the Headmaster had decided to hide his heritage from him. He kind of understood why Dumbledore had placed blocks on his magic, though he was far from forgiving the man. Harry thought that had he had all that power for his life, then very drastic things could have happened to either to him or to those around him, especially when he lost his temper.

Although this was going through his mind, he noticed the headmaster attempting to catch his eye. Harry knew at once what the professor was hoping to find in his eyes; the access to his mind. Little did the headmaster know, was that his mental shields were more than likely the best in Great Britain, if not the world. As calmly as he could, he turned his head away from where Fawkes sat on his perch, watching the upcoming exchange with rapt interest. The phoenix gave a trill in greeting and Harry responded with a nod and a slight wave, not wanting to be the first to break the silence.

He finally looked Dumbledore in the eye and suddenly felt the soft brushing of the professor's '_Legilimens'_ curse attempt to penetrate his shields. He smirked in triumph whenever he felt the professor pull from his mind without even attempting to try to tear down the huge stone slabs that blocked the road to his thoughts and memories. Harry suddenly came up with an idea that made the smirk that he had on the inside grow into a mischievous and almost malicious smile. He caught Dumbledore's eye and in his head, said '_Legilimens_'. The reaction was perfect as he had caught the old professor off guard, but Harry pulled out before Dumbledore could even attempt to place his shields back up at full force.

This time, Harry allowed the smirk to show on his face that some turned to slight snickering at the look of utter surprise on the old professor's face. Harry simply could not resist as he leaned forward in his chair, and spoke to the headmaster.

"You know professor, you should close your mouth, I doubt that you would like it if any flies flew in there," Harry said, with his smirk turning into a grin as Dumbledore shook himself from his shock and focused back on Harry.

"Well done Harry, it seems that you have been keeping yourself busy since this summer," Dumbledore said with a slight chuckle escaping from his lips.

"In a way," Harry said, a mischievous glint in his emerald eyes. "Mustn't give away all my secrets now, should I?"

Dumbledore frowned when he heard that. He knew that the young man in front of him had somehow over come the block that he had created on his and Ginevra Weasley's soul-bond and he could not understand how they had become so close, so quickly. The thought of losing control of the once stable youth was somewhat frightening to the elder wizard, as he had felt how powerful Harry would become when he placed the blocks on the boy in his second year.

Harry continued to stare down the Headmaster, a smirk still shown on his face as he watched the warring emotions in the professor's eyes. They seemed to flash in anger one moment, then retreat into sadness, only to surge back in anger. Harry placed his shields to full just in case Dumbledore were to pull a 'Snape' like attempt at entering his mind. Voldemort had tried to enter his mind over the summer, and he had failed miserably, and that was with the Dark Lord attacking with fervor and anger, not gentleness. Harry knew that he could withstand almost any Legilimens that there was in, at least, Great Britain.

"Is there a reason why you called me up here, sir," Harry said, trying to keep the anger and sarcasm out of his voice. "Or did you just bring me up here in an attempt to isolate me in order to enter my mind?"

And then it happened, immediately after finishing his question, Harry felt the battering ram strike. _He must be having a bad day or something_, Harry thought to himself as he repelled the Headmaster's attacks. Harry handled the attack with little difficulty, which only seemed to make Dumbledore strike with all that he had. Seeing the opportunity for revenge, he slipped into the professor's mind, whose shields were nearly completely down, due to the furiousness of his mind assault, leaving him defenseless. Harry entered the mind of Dumbledore, and quickly searched through the man's memories, finally coming to the one that he was interested in.

Harry watched in rapt attention as he saw the Headmaster standing over his and Ginny's bodies. The Headmaster stood for some time until he withdrew his wand and seemed to create a ward around himself and the two beds, thus making sure that he was undisturbed during the blocking ritual. Some ten minutes later, the Headmaster's wand movements stopped and he slumped into the chair that was sitting behind him. After a few seconds of catching his breath, Dumbledore stood, removed the chair he had conjured, as well as the ward he had created and walked out of the hospital wing, a small smirk coming to his lips as the doors closed behind him.

Harry pulled roughly out of the professor's mind, causing the old man to stumble into his chair, as he had been standing since the initial assault began. Harry's eyes lit with rage and comprehension at the same time. Ginny and he had been sure it was Dumbledore who had caused the block, but they did not want to prove it. Harry now had the evidence they needed to find the source of the block. His body shook with rage as he attempted to restrain himself from attacking Dumbledore. There was a few minutes of silence as Harry fought for control of his rage, as he felt his magic leak out from his body and fill the room. Objects were shaking, the windows were cracked and in the hospital wing, Ginny woke up with a start, sitting up almost immediately.

"Why?" Harry asked in a hoarse whisper. "How could you do that to me, to us?"

He received no answer in reply, he stood suddenly, grabbed the chair that he had been sitting on and proceeded to launch it into a bookshelf that sat on the other side of the room. Fawkes trilled a soothing song, attempting to calm down the teenager, but it was to no avail, as Harry's face turned into a scowl that Snape would be impressed with. He looked down at the Headmaster's weakened state, and felt a touch of sadness and guilt for the man.

At the same moment, he felt Ginny enter his mind as he finally started to calm down. Her presence, either in person, or in his mind, was enough for Harry to calm his nerves and help him control his emotions.

_Harry? Is everything alright, where are you? _Ginny asked through their mind-link.

_Well, it would be fine, if I hadn't just found out that the man that I thought of as a mentor, was the one who placed the blocks on us. _Harry thought back, hearing Ginny's mental gasp of horror, then the rage that filled her body. _Calm down Gin, I'll take care of it, I already ripped the memory from his mind after he tried to use Legilimency on me._

He felt Ginny leave the hospital wing and start her way up to the Headmaster's office while Harry continued to talk to the Headmaster, who seemed to finally shake himself from his shock of what Harry had been able to pull out of his mind. Dumbledore was not going to allow Harry to continue any further with what he had been able to unlock. He stood to his feet, his wand pointed at the young man. A spell shot out of his wand towards Harry, who seemed to have not noticed the quick movement of the Headmaster. At the last second as the spell was inches away from Harry, a golden shield surrounded the boy and the spell bounced off it harmlessly.

Harry turned to face the man, and a smirk settled on his face after seeing the, once again, shocked face of the Headmaster. "Did you seriously think it would be that easy, sir?" Harry mocked the Headmaster by keeping the smirk on his face, a glint of mischief and amusement in his eyes. He felt Ginny getting closer to the office and turned to leave when a spell buzzed past his shoulder and hit the door. A number of locks seemed to click, effectively locking Harry and Dumbledore in the office.

"I am afraid that I cannot allow you to leave just yet, Mr. Potter," the Headmaster said as he walked around his desk, making sure to keep Harry in his sights. He stopped as he came within ten feet from the teenager. He finally realized that Harry had yet to draw his wand and that he had been able to cast the shield charm without the use of a wand. This surely proved that the boy had been able to break the blocks that he had placed on his magic.

"I see you are trying to figure out how I was able to break through the blocks that you unlawfully put on my magic," Harry said, using a slight trick he had learned from Godric's knowledge. "Let's just say that an ancestor helped me out, one that you probably did not know about."

"What?!" Dumbledore nearly screamed, Harry had finally broken through to the man and now he could tell that a fight was bound to break out at any second. "None of your ancestors are alive, who helped you?"

Harry just laughed, he found the old Headmaster throwing a temper tantrum to be very amusing. It was apparent that the old man was not happy when he was not in the loop on things about him, or anything around him. He thought about telling the man that he was the owner of the castle that he stood in, but thought better of it. Of course, Godric had let him know, that because he was the only heir known of, besides that of Tom Riddle being Slytherin's heir, that he had control of the school.

He turned to leave once again, but stopped at the door, where he raised his hand and slid it down the door, the locks clicked once more to prove they had unlocked and he opened the door. Before walking through the threshold, he turned to the Headmaster. "I believe we will continue this talk when we have both calmed down a little bit," Harry said, looking at the Headmaster critically. "Shall we meet again in a couple weeks, before school begins?"

Dumbledore's anger seemed to cool as Harry spoke calmly. He seemed to think for a short while before replying. "Yes, I agree. I believe that we should take a couple of weeks to think over all of this, and we can meet in a couple of weeks to discuss our plans for the following school year."

"That is fine with me Headmaster, I shall see you in a fortnight," Harry said, walking through the door, and shutting it behind him.

* * *

Harry woke up early, a week after his meeting with Dumbledore, and headed downstairs to exercise and help Mrs. Weasley out with breakfast. It was Ginny's birthday today, and he had spent some time over the week since the two of them had awakened trying to find something that she would love. Of course, this was easier said then done, considering with the link that the two of them had it was very difficult to keep something secret from the other.

He made his way outside and began his running regiment that he had started a few weeks into the summer holidays. As he ran around, he thought upon the past week, since returning to the Burrow. It had been slow at first, with the Weasley's still trying to figure out what had happened to the new couple. Harry and Ginny had told them that they were unsure of what had happened during their dance together.

It had been later that night, after the elder Weasleys had gone to bed that Ginny's brothers approached Harry. Of course, Ginny had warned him that this would be coming and she had said that she would not help him unless things started to get nasty. This seemed to make the twins, and the two older brothers to back away and accept the fact that they were dating. Though they did seem to be happy for the new couple.

It was Ron that seemed to have a problem with Harry and Ginny's new relationship. Neither Harry, nor Ginny, could understand Ron's seeming jealously of their relationship. Harry figured that it was because that he still believed that Hermione was with Krum, because of what happened during the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Though, Hermione seemed to stay with Ron a lot, so he immediately released that possible scenario.

Harry was puzzled by his best mate's seeming hatred of their relationship. Of course, they had yet to tell anyone about what had really occurred on the night of his 16th birthday. He was sure that all of the Weasley's would freak out and probably try to tear them apart, though the thought of that actually happening, seemed highly unlikely. He was sure that Dumbledore had put two and two together and figured out that Ginny and he were now bonded. Though he did not know of the abilities that both teenagers now had because of this.

The rest of the week was uneventful, with no sign of Voldemort or his Death Eaters prowling in Great Britain. The Weasley's, Harry, and Hermione fell into a relaxed nature at the Burrow as the summer holidays slowly started to come to an end.

Harry's musings were cut short as he stepped through the kitchen door, where he found a wide awake Mrs. Weasley who was standing at the stove, and from the looks of things, had just started to cook breakfast. He closed the door, making sure that she heard him enter, and sure enough, she turned around and smiled at him.

"Good morning, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said, as she came over and gave the young man one of her patented rib-cracking hugs. "Did you have a good workout today?"

"Yes, I sure did," Harry said, returning the hug. "Nothing like a relaxing run across the grounds to awaken one's self during a beautiful day such as this."

Mrs. Weasley smiled at him as she gathered some eggs, bacon, sausage and toast onto a plate and sat it in front of Harry. He looked up from his seat at the table and flashed her a smile in thanks while pouring himself a glass of juice before digging into the food ravenously. After finishing his plate, he drank the rest of his juice, placed the used dishes in the sink and walked over to the stove and began to fix breakfast for his girlfriend, _or would 'wife' be more appropriate,_ Harry thought to himself as he cooked the same breakfast as Mrs. Weasley had for him. He added a muffin to the plate, and picked up the flowers that he found in the garden. He placed the plate, and the vase of flowers onto a tray and walked up to Ginny's room as he felt, through their bond, that Ginny was waking up.

The other residents of the house had already made their way downstairs as Harry was beginning to walk up the stairs. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley shared a knowing smile as Harry exited the kitchen. While the boys looked at each other in confusion, wondering why Harry had carried, what they thought was his breakfast, up the stairs and out of the kitchen.

Harry carefully opened the door to Ginny's room and entered, softly closing the door behind him. He sat the tray of food carefully on the desk that sat near her window and quietly made his way to her side, where she lay still, asleep. He climbed into bed with her and softly placed a kiss on her lips, causing a sigh to come from her lips, as well as a smile to appear. Harry chuckled softly, and kissed her a little harder. He felt her respond and begin to kiss him back, but he knew that she was still asleep. He pulled away after a while and continued to look at her as she slept. As if feeling his eyes on her, Harry felt her start to awaken.

_Good morning love, and happy birthday._ Harry said through their mind-link. Ginny smiled back at him as she finally opened her eyes and looked into his emerald green eyes.

_Good morning to you too. What time is it?_ She asked him, keeping with staying quiet and talking with mind-speak.

_It's around 9:30, I told your mum that you deserved a little of a lie-in today because it was your birthday. _Harry said, while getting up from the bed. This caused Ginny to moan and pout at him, but that soon went away when she saw what he had done for her.

_Breakfast in bed? Really?_ She asked him, and he smiled one of his crooked smiles that always made her heart seem to melt. _How sweet of you, love._

He sat the tray across her lap, as she sat up in order to eat. He then sat down next to her and simply watched her eat. He chuckled lightly when he saw, and felt through their link, the blush on her face as he sent her thoughts of his love for her and how much he cared for her. It warmed her heart to feel these feelings come from him, it was sometimes hard to believe that he could ever be in love with her. The Boy-Who-Lived falling for someone as plain as her, who would have thought it. She looked over at Harry who must have picked up on these thoughts, causing her to blush in shame and duck her head.

Harry leaned over to her and placed two fingers under her chin, slowly moving her head so that she was looking him in the eye. _I love you. Never let anyone tell you anything different. With this bond that we have, I cannot hide anything from you and vice versa. And I can easily tell you that I will always love you, no matter what. _He spoke fiercely, but passionately, to her through their bond. _I love you, Ginevra Potter._

What was left of on the breakfast tray was nearly toppled over as Ginny jumped on Harry and hugged him tightly, tears running freely down her cheeks. _I'm so sorry, Harry. I love you, too. And I always will._

"I know you will, Gin." Harry whispered into her ear as he kept hold of her as she cried out in relief that he was not mad at her and for the fact that he truly loved her. After a few minutes, Ginny got control of herself and leaned out of the hug, before leaning back in and lightly kissing Harry on the lips before getting out of bed.

"I'll go take the tray downstairs while you get ready," Harry said as he picked up the tray and leaned in and returned the small kiss before heading towards the door.

"Thanks again, love, for breakfast, and for being here for me." Ginny said, with a small blush, which caused Harry to snicker. He replied by blowing her a kiss and walking out the door and back down the stairs to see if any help was needed for the party that the Weasley's were hosting for Ginny's 15th birthday.

* * *

After breakfast was finished by all those in the house, and once the birthday girl had finally gotten out of bed. The lot of them, besides Mrs. Weasley, who was preparing for a lovely feast in honor of her only daughter's birthday. When the Weasley children, Hermione, and Harry walked out of the kitchen to play a game of Quidditch, Harry swore he heard Mrs. Weasley muttering something about her little girl growing up. He could not help but smile as they left the house, and walked towards the broom shed where they took out their brooms and set towards the paddock.

The teams were much as they were at Harry's party, but there were no adults there yet so they had to maneuver the teams around a little bit. Ginny and Bill were captains, in which Ginny was allowed to pick first. The teams were: Ginny, Harry, Ron, George vs. Bill, Charlie, Fred, and surprisingly Arthur, who admitted to have played for a couple years as Chaser at Hogwarts.

Harry and Charlie were once again the Seekers, Ron and Bill played Keeper, and Ginny, George, Fred, and Arthur were Chasers. The game started quickly with Ginny and George scoring twice a piece, to take a quick 40-0 lead. Bill seemed to be a little bit rusty since a couple of weeks ago, as Ginny and George continued to score on nearly every shot that they took. The score eventually got to be 70-10, and finally Bill's team called for a time-out.

Bill's team quickly focused on a strategy, after the time-out that included Charlie playing as both Seeker and Chaser, hoping that the 3-on-2 advantage would lead to a quick come back. And sure enough, within 20 minutes after the time-out, Bill's team was only 10 points behind, 80-70. Another five minutes later and Bill's team had taken their first lead, 90-80.

The action was intense, but friendly, as the Weasley family battled it out for bragging rights. Another 30 minutes later showed the score being, 150-150. Both Charlie and Harry were taking turns in being Chasers, which caused being able to find the Snitch a lot more difficult then in a normal game. Just as Ginny scored another goal, giving her team a one goal lead, 160-150, she saw Harry and Charlie racing around the paddock, in an apparent race for the Snitch.

What none of them knew, except for Harry, was that he was Feinting, hoping to be able to shake Charlie off his tail and be able to find the Snitch before he could recover. Harry pulled out of his dive close to the ground, and was glad to see that Charlie was forced to abandon his broom as he landed softly on the ground, having stopped a little to quickly for his Cleansweep. As he pulled back into the air after his dive, Harry saw a glint of gold shining near Bill's head. He pushed his Firebolt to full speed as he charged his way down the field at an impressive rate of speed. Charlie was far behind him as he made his way towards the golden ball. Sensing the Seeker, the ball began its evasive maneuvers in order to avoid being caught, but it did not matter, as it had started to move, Harry was right on top of it and easily caught the Snitch in his hands.

The next moment, as Harry's hand grasped the ball, a loud scream filled the air around the paddock, as Ginny fell from her broom. She had been intent on watching Harry chase after the Snitch and had been hit in the head by a hard pass from George, thinking that she was paying attention to the other Chasers, and not Harry. The sudden impact, and the pain that came with it, threw her into a shocked state, as she slipped from her seated position on the broom, and began to fall off. She attempted to grab hold of the broom but it slipped from her hand and she began to free-fall to the ground.

Harry, hearing the scream, as well as the sudden scream from within his mind and the sudden feeling of pain and panic caused Harry to quickly release the Snitch and turned on a dime, streaking past a shocked Weasley brother and attempting to catch her before she crashed to the ground from over 500 feet in the air. He pushed the Firebolt to its maximum speed and dived towards the ground hard, in an attempt to increase his speed in order to catch his falling soul-mate.

'Come on, faster,' yelled Harry in his mind, as he got closer to Ginny's location. He noticed that Ginny, by now, had stopped flailing her arms around, knowing that Harry was going to attempt to catch her, and was allowing the laws of gravity pull her down to the hard earth below her. He noticed how low she was getting and urged the broom even faster. He clenched his knees together as they met and Harry quickly wrapped his arms around her waist. To the Weasley brothers, the amount of time between Harry's catch and Harry catching Ginny was only around 10 seconds.

Unfortunately, the speed in which both Harry and Ginny were going caused Harry's broom to tilt downward, forcing both of them off the broom and to continue down the final 15 feet to the ground. Though somehow, before hitting the ground, Harry was able to toss a wandless Cushioning Charm on the ground below them, and they hit the ground, with Harry hitting the ground, and Ginny falling on top of him.

Ginny groaned, as she placed a hand on the back of her head, where the Quaffle had hit her, and looked over to see Harry beginning to sit up. She noticed that the ground was soft, not hard as she thought it would have been. She looked questioningly at Harry who in turn smirked smugly and said through their mind-link, _Cushioning Charm, love, are you alright?_

_Doing quite well, besides the fact that it feels like my brain is trying to escape its confinement from within my skull._

Harry chuckled softly and leaned over, kissing the spot that she had been rubbing lightly. He finally got to his feet and extended a hand to help her, a small smile on his face as he heard her brothers finally land on the ground, and the sound of the back door being opened sounded in the distance. It seemed that more than her brothers had seen the events that had just taken place. She smiled back at him as she took his hand and after she had gotten to her feet, she stepped on her tiptoes and placed a kiss on his cheek and sent feelings of thanks and reassurance as she felt he was still somewhat worried about her. They made their way back towards the Burrow when Mrs. Weasley seemed to have been shot out of a cannon and barreled into the two of them nearly crushing many of their ribs and causing them to be short of breath for a few seconds before she let them go and pulled Ginny into the house. Harry followed after the two Weasley women and was followed by Ginny's brothers who kept thanking him, he would respond by smiling at them and shaking his head, dismissing the thanks.

As they made it back inside, Harry stayed outside for a few minutes, thanking whatever deity was out there that had made it possible for him to get to know Ginny and the rest of the Weasleys. They were his true family now, along with Remus and a few other Order members. He would never consider the Dursleys as family nor would he see Number 4 Privet Drive as his home. No, his true home was Hogwarts and the Burrow. The two places he truly belonged, with people who cared for him and loved him. As his thoughts were mulling these thoughts over, he heard the back door open once more and saw Charlie stick his head out of the door and said that Ginny was asking for him. He walked inside and went to see what his wife needed.

* * *

The rest of the day had been full of setting up for the birthday party that was happening that night. Everyone started to arrive around 5pm and the party finally started an hour later. Ginny had already opened her many gifts from family members, Order member, and her friends. Though the only present that was missing, or seemed to be missing, was Harry's. Who when asked about it gave her a mysterious smile and said that she would be getting it after the party was over.

Currently, everyone was eating dinner and was just about ready to serve the giant cake that Mrs. Weasley had fixed for her only daughter's fifteenth birthday. Ron, Hermione, Luna, Neville, Ginny, and Harry all sat together at one table. With a mix of other Weasleys, Order members, and professors scattered about the other multiple tables that were set up in the back yard of the Burrow. Eventually, after everyone was finished eating, Ginny's parents brought out the cake, which was designed in the form of a Quaffle, due to their daughter's Quidditch position. Everyone began singing "Happy Birthday!" While the twins set off a set of their new fireworks that formed a message into the night sky, "Happy Birthday, Gin-Gin!" Of course, the twins paid dearly for that with a double Bat-Bogey hex that no one had seen coming. Though it had been one from both Harry and Ginny, in which Ginny gave Harry a beaming smile for helping her out and kissed his cheek in thanks, while everyone was laughing at the twins' torture.

Harry stood up, removing his arms from around Ginny's waist, who groaned in protest and pouting slightly, though she brighten when he placed a kiss on the top of her head, and told her that he was going to talk with some of the others for a little bit, promising to return soon. He walked around the different tables that surrounded the one that he had just left. He saw that his professors, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Snape were all located at one table conversing lightly about what sounded like the upcoming school year. Though, when he walked by, he saw Dumbledore looked up at him and nodded to him. He and the headmaster had been on strained terms ever since they had their meeting after his and Ginny's soul-bonding. He hoped that they could come to terms when they met next week.

He continued to scour the tables and came upon a table full of Order members, Tonks, Remus, Moody, Kingsley, and Mr. Weasley, were all discussing things about the war, and how the Ministry was doing a poor job of keeping hold of Death Eaters and how it seemed that Fudge was allowing some of Voldemort's most loyal followers into some of the higher positions within the Ministry itself. Harry also saw tables that contained some of Ginny's friends, and some of her classmates as well. The congregation was almost double of the amount that the Order had allowed for Harry's birthday.

Harry made his way through the rest of the party tables, stopping every so often to talk to someone he knew. After a while, he made his way to the front yard of the Burrow, where he found that much of the noise from the birthday party was drowned out by the lob-sided structure at his back. He sat on the stoop by the front door, pondering over the last few weeks of his life. First the death of his Godfather, because of his stupidity. Then, his trip to Gringotts, where he found out about his parents and Godfather's wills and learned that he was stinking rich. But that was not all that he learned while he was there. He found out about his magical core being bonded and that he had a soul-bond to Ginny. Finally, was the unlocking of his core and of the soul-bond between him and Ginny.

As he sat there on the steps of one of the places that he truly called home, on a warm August night, he could not help but smile. He had a family that loved him, a girlfriend who loved him, not because of his fame, or his money, but because of who he was, not the Boy-Who-Lived, but just Harry. But as these thoughts entered his mind, he felt a chilling cold breach the warm night. He looked up into the sky, wondering just what would dare breach such a beautiful night, and hoping that it was not the idea that he had in his mind. Sure enough, his hopes were not answered, because floating in the sky, in the direction of the Burrow, were a group of Dementors, numbering close to 100.

He found himself oddly relaxed as he stood to his feet, though a rough growl escaped his lips in anger at Voldemort for having this night interrupted. He removed his wand from his forearm holster and waited for the inevitable. He raised his wand to his throat and muttered "_Sonorus_", and he turned around to face the backyard.

"Anyone who can produce a Patronus Charm get to the front yard immediately, all others should get inside the Burrow now!" Harry's voice echoed throughout the Burrow's property. He murmured "_Quietus_".

He heard the yells come from the group in the back and heard numerous loud cracks as it seemed that some of the crowd had left, whether it was to get others or to flee back home he didn't know. Harry watched as the dementors seemed to block out the falling sun, making it seem even darker than it truly was. And he was aware of the slight scream that was starting to fill his mind, even with his Occlumency shields up, which was not a good sign. Most of the party guests finally started to make their way to the front yard, many gasping or muttering a curse as they saw the billowing midnight black cloaks of the dementors in the distance. Ginny, Ron, and Hermione took a place slightly behind Harry, though Ginny was closest to him. The professors lined up behind the four teens with the rest of the Weasley family and numerous Order members behind them.

Harry raised his wand in his right hand, everyone else following him as a total of 20 or more wands pointed towards the oncoming dark creatures. Harry closed his eyes as the screaming of his mother got louder, he focused his mind on Ginny, what he loved about her and all the great memories that they had had together. When he thought he was ready, he opened his eyes. He raised his left hand, and slowly counted down from five. Everyone caught on to what was happening and began to quickly prepare themselves. The dementors were only a few hundred yards away and were coming fast. Harry's count hit zero, and there was a deafening cry of '_Expecto Patronum'_ that came from those defending the Burrow.

Fifteen Patroni came flying out of the dark, with the stag Patronus from Harry leading the pact with Ginny's doe Patronus charm. The rest of the animals were unclear to see as the brightness of them all seemed to blind them all. The two deer charged the dementors, the stag hitting the first few with its antlers and the doe rammed them as well. The other protectors seemed to corral all of the dementors into the path of the stag and doe as it seemed that these two were the strongest of the protectors.

Suddenly, a horrifying screech filled the air as one of the stag's antlers speared through the dementor, causing a hole to be placed through where its heart would be if it were truly human. Harry seeing this, reached into some of the knowledge that Godric had found out about Dementors and the research that he and the other founders had about destroying them. They said that bright light would scare them away, that the brightness of the protector emitted happy emotions, ones that the Dementors could not feed on, causing them to flee.

With this thought in mind, he released the charm and steadied himself for the amount of power he was about to put into this spell. He told everyone to release their charms as well, which everyone gave him a funny look at first before everyone did so. Harry raised his wand as the Dementors were able to regroup and charge once more. But before they could get to close, Harry raised his wand and shouted '_Expecto Incendio Patronum!' _His wand glowed a deep red before the glow turned into a blazing fire that shot from his wand. Very slowly it took its form of a stag, but instead of the silvery blue color that Patronus's usually have. This one was a dark red, and was surrounded by fire that wrapped around its entire being. It crashed into the remaining Dementors and the screeches that filled the air sent shivers down the spines of the party guests who were fighting, as well as the ones that had stayed in the Burrow. It only took a couple of minutes for the screams of the Dementors to die off, but the stench of burning cloaks and whatever was truly inside those cloaks filled the air, as well as the ash from the burnt cloaks.

The stag made its way back towards the group and bowed his head towards Harry, who instinctively returned the bow before releasing the charm. After the spell was broken, Harry stumbled and fell to one knee as the two Patroni he had cast had taken quite a bit out of him, and the fact that he or Ginny had regained all of their magic due to the forming of the soul-bonding and releasing all of the blocks on their magic had already limited the amount of reserves they had left, and with barely any magical reserves left, it would take at least two weeks for the witch or wizard to be back up to normal levels if they were using simple magic and not many advanced spells.

Harry shakily got to his feet before nearly passing out, only to be caught by those behind him, who gently took the teen into the house where the Headmaster fire-called Madam Pomfrey and asked if she were available to check on Harry to see if there was any way of helping whatever seemed to be wrong with him. And with the threat gone, most of the party group went back to their homes to be with their families and to warn them of the coming threat that was closer than many believed to be on its way.

_**A/N: **Alright, well, the story should be making its way to the Hogwarts Express in Chapter 7 and will have the opening feast probably occuring in Chapter 8. Just have to figure out if I am going to deal with the Horcrux story line or not. Which will mean if Slughorn is in this fic, or trying to come up with a new DADA teacher. I might post a poll asking if readers would enjoy the Horcrux story line, or if it should be something off-canon. Again, don't forget to review. And thanks for reading._


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